Milk allergy
Cow's milk is an essential food for many infants, yet
for baby Ramana Harris it could have killed him. He suffered a serious
allergic reaction to a milk ingredient in fruit and yoghurt cereal
when he was just three and a half months old.
Ramana's mum Shashi Agnihotri, of Leicester, was just beginning to
introduce solids to his diet after exclusively breastfeeding. But
within seconds of eating just a teaspoon of the cereal mixed with
water, Ramana developed a nettle rash on the back of his neck and a
few minutes later his lips began to swell.
He was rushed to hospital where a paediatrician was on stand-by to
treat him, yet even as doctors were examining him he stopped
breathing.
Shashi said: "It was terrifying. His lips were massive. All
kinds of things were going through my mind and I didn't know whether
he was going to survive."
Ramana had suffered from anaphylactic shock, an over-reaction of
the immune system that can lead to death within minutes.
They had been staying with Shashi's parents in Shrewsbury at the
time and earlier in the day her father, who is a doctor, had given him
penicillin. She explained: "The doctors thought he had reacted to the
penicillin. I showed them the cereal packet and they said there was
nothing in there that could cause such a serious reaction. I was
really angry with Dad for giving the penicillin to him."
But four days later Shashi gave Ramana the cereal for breakfast and
his mouth again swelled up. She gave him a dose of the antihistamines
she'd been given at the hospital and called an ambulance, but the drug
had reduced the swelling by the time they arrived. She said: "He was floppy and sleepy, but that could have been
a reaction to the Piriton. I was advised to take him to accident and
emergency to get him referred to an allergy specialist."
A blood test confirmed that Ramana, who is now nearly a year old,
did have an allergy to milk. The family was advised to carry the
antihistamines with them in case of an emergency.
Allergies among children are on the increase and although such a
serious reaction to milk is rare, five per cent of babies and young
children are believed to have an allergy to dairy products.
John Warner, Professor of Child Health and Director of Allergy
& Inflammation Sciences at the University of Southampton, said:
"For the vast majority, it is a relatively transient phenomenon
with 80 per cent outgrowing it in the first two or three years of
life. Those that persist beyond three or four years of age tend to
persist through to adulthood."
And for most of those babies, the allergy manifests itself most
commonly in the form of eczema,
followed by gastrointestinal symptoms with diarrhoea
and vomiting.
But for those who do suffer life-threatening reactions to dairy
products, it can be much more of a problem than allergies to other
foods because the milk protein casein is widely used, yet often
legally undeclared on labels.
Allergy nurse Sue Clarke, of Cambridge, whose son Chris, now 14,
had an anaphylactic reaction to his first formula feed when he was
just a few hours old, said shopping was a nightmare.
"You can't just pop into a supermarket - you have to read
labels and cross reference everything. The supermarkets aren't as good
as they say - we've had bread rolls we were told were safe that had
whey powder in and recipes have changed without a change in labelling,"
she explained.
The Anaphylaxis Campaign is calling for labelling laws that clearly
state when an allergen is present and for a change in the current
European 25 per cent rule, which states that any compound ingredient
forming less than 25 per cent of the whole does not have to have its
constituent ingredients listed.
Chairman of the campaign David Reading said: "Although serious
milk allergy is quite rare, it is very important for some people. For
them, it's a matter of life and death that the information is on the
ingredient list."
Professor Warner said that as the causes of allergies were not
clear, there was nothing parents could do to minimise the risks except
to eat nutritious food during pregnancy and lactation and avoid
smoking.
For baby Ramana, the future is looking brighter. He was recently
tested again and did not have the anaphylactic response, although over
three to four days milk did aggravate his eczema, make him sneeze and
cause red spots on his face.
Says mum Shashi: "We're very lucky - it looks like he is
growing out of it, but it could have been a lot worse."
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