The Four-Day Rule

The four-day rule is suggested to help you pinpoint foods that may trigger allergic reactions in your child.

• If a food causes an allergic reaction, ensure that you don’t give that same food to your child again.
• It is best to introduce new foods over the course of several days to determine how your child will react to the food. For e.g., introduce your child to pumpkin on Monday and then wait until Thursday to introduce another food.
• Try to introduce new foods during the morning or noon, so that any allergic reaction that occurs will cause the least amount of disruption in your child’s fragile routine.

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When does food allergy happen?

When your child’s immune system mistakenly believes that something eaten is harmful to the body, it causes a food allergy.

• The immune system produces IgE antibodies to a particular food in an attempt to protect the body.
• IgE antibodies then trigger mast cells (which are allergy cells in the body) to release chemicals into the bloodstream.
• One of these chemicals is histamine, which acts on the eyes, nose, throat, lungs, skin or gastrointestinal tract and causes symptoms of the allergic reaction in your child.
• Once the body has produced antibodies against a certain food, the antibodies instantly recognise that food. So each time your child eats the food, the body releases histamine into the bloodstream again, creating allergy symptoms.

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The common symptoms of food allergies

Signs that your child is having food allergy will appear within minutes or even seconds. The common symptoms to look out for are:

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Foods that may cause allergy

     Note: Children may "outgrow" food allergies to milk, eggs,      soybean products and wheat.

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Foods to avoid that may cause allergies

To avoid increasing the risk of allergies while your child’s immune system is developing, there are some foods you should hold off giving your child. Learn the terms used to describe these foods on food labels, for example:

• Milk protein - milk, non-fat milk solids, cheese, yoghurt,    caseinates, whey, lactose.

• Lactose - milk, lactose.

• Egg - eggs, egg albumen, egg yolk, egg lecithin.

• Gluten - wheat, barley, rye, triticale, wheat bran, malt,    oats, cornflour, oatbran.

• Soy - soybeans, hydrolysed vegetable protein, soy    protein isolate, soy lecithin.

• Salicylates - strawberries, tomatoes.

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My child has food allergy. What do I do?

If you suspect your child has a food allergy, set an appointment with your doctor. He should be able to diagnose the problem and advise you on how to deal
with it.

Fortunately, with food labeling laws, you will find it much simpler to decide on what you can and can’t feed your child.

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