How long does it take for a baby to recover from food allergies?

There is no fixed recovery cycle for infant food allergy. Most children with mild to moderate allergies will gradually establish immune tolerance and the allergic reaction will completely disappear around the age of 3 to 5 years old. Only about 10% to 20% of severe immediate allergies may continue into adolescence or even adulthood.

Last month, I met a mother holding her 11-month-old baby for consultation at the child care clinic. She said that after adding two mouthfuls of boiled egg white to the baby, the area around her mouth quickly became red, and all the old eczema on her neck also appeared. The allergen check showed that the egg white IgE was slightly elevated, which is a typical mild to moderate immediate allergy. I taught her the stepwise introduction method, and asked her to start feeding one thousandth of a dose of cooked egg white, and as long as there was no serious reaction, add a little more every three to five days. Last week, she came for a follow-up visit to report the good news, saying that her baby could now eat a whole steamed egg. It only took more than three months, which was much faster than the originally expected desensitization rate.

Of course, not all Minbao desensitization can be so smooth. A few years ago, I followed up a child with peanut allergy. When he was half a year old, he developed laryngeal edema when he touched peanut butter for the first time. He was sent to the emergency room for emergency treatment. Now that the child is in the third grade of elementary school, he still cannot touch any peanut products. He keeps an epinephrine pen in his school bag all year round. A serious allergy like this, which may be life-threatening when it occurs, will most likely be with him for many years.

There are actually different opinions in the industry on how to speed up the improvement of allergies. The guidelines from a few years ago also said that if you find an allergy, you should completely avoid the allergen for 3 to 6 months before trying again. In the past two years, more and more studies have shown that as long as there is no severe allergic reaction, continuous exposure to allergens in small doses can build tolerance faster. To put it bluntly, it is like a child recognizing a person. After seeing it a lot, the immune system will know that this thing is not an invading bad guy, and there is no need to activate systemic immunity to attack. However, many clinicians feel that this kind of operation is very risky, and it will be troublesome if the dosage is not controlled well and induces severe allergies. Therefore, you still need to consult a doctor who specializes in children's allergy to evaluate the specific operation, and don't try it blindly at home.

Let me talk about a point that resonates deeply with me. Many parents dare not feed their babies anything when they find out they are allergic. Even breastfeeding mothers have to avoid more than a dozen foods. In fact, it is really unnecessary. Unless the baby clearly has a severe reaction after eating something, there is no need to overdo it. Otherwise, the baby's immune system will not have the opportunity to be exposed to the allergen, and tolerance will be established more slowly. Not long ago, I met a four-year-old who couldn't touch eggs. When I asked his parents, he hadn't given him a bite since he was diagnosed with the allergy at ten months old, which delayed the best opportunity for desensitization.