Gluten allergy in a child: symptoms, diagnosis, treatment

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

A child's gluten allergy, the symptoms of which are quite insidious, usually appears during infancy when new foods are introduced into the diet. Disappears with a gluten-free diet and symptomatic treatment.

Gluten and gluten-containing foods

Gluten is a plant-based protein. It is found in the seeds of some cereals such as oats, rye, barley and wheat. Another name for gluten is gluten. It is part of about 80% of everyday human nutrition, including products for infants.

Clear presence of gluten can be found in bread, bakery products, cereals from the above cereals, pastries, semolina, pasta, bran. Hidden gluten foods include deli, candy, ice cream, sauces, mayonnaise, dressings, chips, crab sticks, and other foods that have gluten added as an auxiliary ingredient.

Reasons for appearance

Why is a child allergic to gluten? Scientistsadhere to the immunological theory. Namely, when gluten enters the digestive tract, it breaks down into fractional proteins - glutelin and gliadin. The latter is perceived by the body as a foreign body. As a result, antibodies to gliadin and autoimmune antibodies to intestinal cells are produced in the blood. Its walls are damaged, irritated, and the full functioning and absorption of nutrients stops. That is why a child develops a gluten allergy, the symptoms of which are often considered manifestations of other diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.

The intestine becomes a place of accumulation of decay products, and this negatively affects the general condition of the body. In addition, in severe cases, there may be disturbances in the work of the endocrine, cardiovascular systems and kidneys.

Symptoms of gluten allergy in a child

An allergic reaction to gluten most often occurs when parents begin to introduce solid foods to their baby. During this period, the child gets acquainted with new food in addition to mother's milk. In most cases, especially if the baby is gaining weight poorly, the first complementary foods are cereal cereals that contain gluten. As a result, a gluten allergy can develop. In a child, symptoms appear immediately or even after several weeks and months after the allergen enters the body, the so-called cumulative allergy. The reaction depends on the size of the portion, the frequency of intake, immunity, the state of the digestive system. The sooner parents detect symptoms and diagnose allergies, the easierbaby.

Gluten allergy manifests itself in a variety of variations. Your child may have the following symptoms:

• bloated, bulging belly. Parents will think that the child is overeating, and the doctor may recognize this as a sign of rickets;
• poor weight gain and growth retardation, particularly after the introduction of complementary foods. If the baby was gaining weight normally before cereal, then when the child becomes allergic to gluten, symptoms of underweight and complex developmental delay are present;
• unstable, frequent, copious stools (5 or more times a day), mushy, foul-smelling, greasy, difficult to wash off, frothy, of different colors, shiny due to fat.

These were typical symptoms of gluten allergy in children. In addition to them, there are a number of others that depend on the presence of microelements, vitamins and nutrients in the body. Therefore, each child's reaction can be completely different. Minor symptoms include:

• capriciousness, tearfulness, irritability, aggressiveness or, conversely, lethargy and fatigue;
• unsatisfactory condition of the skin - peeling, dermatitis, bad hair - weak, dry. Skin rashes most often form on the elbows, knees, buttocks, head;
• bones often break, even with minor injuries. This is rare in he althy young children because their bones are very elastic;
• posture is broken;
• weak muscle tone;
• anemia;
• oral problems - bleeding gums, decaying enamel, caries;
• outwardly the baby looks tired;
• Sometimes a child is compared to a spider, because his tummy becomes bulging, and his arms and legs are thin and skinny, like the legs of a spider.

This is how a child's gluten allergy can manifest itself. The symptoms photographed in the article show that the reaction can be overwhelming.

How to diagnose allergies?

If you find at least one of the symptoms in a child, you must urgently consult a doctor. Delay in this matter threatens the baby with a developmental lag and a deterioration in the state of the body as a whole.

How to detect gluten allergy in a child? For this, allergy tests are carried out, enzyme immunoassay of venous blood is done. As a result of the analysis in the blood serum, the amount of antibodies is determined - antigliadin, autoimmune antibodies to reticulin, tissue transglutaminase, endomysium. In a he althy child, antibodies to gluten in the blood serum are absent or their amount is minimal. If the result is positive, then there is an allergy to gluten. Infants may not develop symptoms until gluten-containing foods are introduced into their diet.

An increased number of eosinophils, immunoglobulins E, G in the blood most often indicates an allergic reaction. The doctor will make the final diagnosis based on the tests andexisting symptoms. For a more accurate picture, it is desirable for the doctor to know what the child's diet has been recently. A good helper in making a diagnosis will be a food diary, in which parents note what the baby ate, in what quantity and from what period the products began to be introduced, what was the reaction of the body to them.

Allergy Prevention

To reduce the risk of developing gluten allergy in infants, it is necessary to introduce complementary foods in a timely manner (not earlier than six months) and breastfeed the baby for as long as possible. You should start feeding with gluten-free cereals - rice, buckwheat, corn and one-component vegetable purees.

It is important to monitor the quality and composition of food for the baby. Give new products to try gradually and keep a diary of observations of the reaction.

A breastfeeding woman can eat foods containing vegetable protein. It does not enter the child's body through milk. In some cases, babies are fed or supplemented with milk mixtures almost from birth. They may also contain gluten, so the choice of the mixture must be taken responsibly. Children with allergies are given gluten-free formula.

Treatment methods

After a child has been diagnosed with a gluten allergy, the symptoms of which are similar to many other childhood diseases, treatment should be started immediately.

The first thing to do is to switch to foods that do not contain vegetableprotein. To do this, you need to know which foods contain gluten and which do not. Unfortunately, not everything that is sold on the domestic market is labeled for the presence of vegetable protein. On packages of foreign products that do not contain gluten, a crossed spikelet is depicted. This makes it more convenient to purchase the right product if the child is allergic to gluten.

Medicine treatment, which will help the child cope with the manifestations of allergies, is prescribed by a doctor. Symptomatic therapy involves taking antihistamines, agents that adjust intestinal motility, enterosorbents, vitamins to boost immunity, gastrointestinal immunostimulants that help restore microflora, anti-inflammatory creams and ointments.

These activities eliminate gluten allergy in a child. Symptoms, the treatment of which takes place in several stages, can be tracked by re-testing. Gluten is one of the ingredients in some medicines, so you need to be careful when choosing them.

Feeding a child with a gluten allergy

The main food for infants, including those with gluten allergies, should be breast milk or gluten-free formula until about one year old. Introduced complementary foods should not contain vegetable proteins.

List of foods that can be eaten with an allergic reaction to gluten:

• natural dairy products, eggs;
• fresh, natural fish, meat, poultry, notmarinated, without spices;
• natural, unprocessed legumes;
• rice, buckwheat, millet, corn, quinoa, amaranth, flour and products made from these cereals;
• fruits, vegetables;
• vegetable and butter;
• sweet - marmalade, marshmallows, chocolate, certain types of ice cream and sweets;
• root vegetables, nuts;
• jelly, fresh juices, natural cocoa and tea;
• tapioca, teff, sorghum.

What should be eliminated from the diet?

All foods implicitly or explicitly containing gluten:

• barley, wheat, rye, oats. All articles and products made from them. Barley, semolina;
• canned food, marinades;
• sausages, sausages, semi-finished products, offal;
• some seasonings and spices, ketchup, mayonnaise, sauces, mustard;
• concentrated soups, bouillon cubes;
• oriental sweets;
• some nutritional supplements;
• confectionery - cakes, pastries, cookies;
• yogurt, whole milk.

Celiac disease and gluten allergy are the same thing?

Celiac disease is a congenital and inherited gluten intolerance. With this disease, vegetable protein is absolutely not absorbed and not digested by the intestines. Celiac disease remains for life, forcing the patient to constantly adhere to a strict diet. If the disease is not treated in time, it can provoke complications in the form of serious diseases.

For allergies in the wall of the small intestineirritated by vegetable protein, and it is partially absorbed by the intestinal villi. Gluten allergy disappears if it is diagnosed in time, treated and followed by a diet.

Gluten allergy is not a sentence

Many parents wonder, "Will a child outgrow a gluten allergy?". Often this is what happens. It is observed in children under the age of three, then in most cases the allergy disappears.

The main thing in the fight against gluten allergy is to be armed with information and timely carry out prevention, diagnosis and treatment.