Symptoms for Milk Allergy
By: BonebrakeTotal Views: 277, Word Count: 573,
This might sound strange but the truth is that there is something like milk allergy. You won’t even realize that you are allergic to milk until and unless you are aware of the symptoms. So what are the symptoms of milk allergy, how is it caused and how to prevent it are some of the facts we are going to deal in this article.
Milk is made up of water, protein, and carbohydrate (lactose). The proteins in the milk are known as whey and casein. It is this protein that causes allergy in many people. A person can be allergic to one or both parts of milk.
According to doctors while both adult and children are prone to milk allergy, children are more susceptible. As much as 3% infants suffer from milk allergy but 80 percent of them outgrow of this allergy by the time they are six years old.
Adults can acquire the milk allergy while in their 30s or 40s. In most of the cases neither adults nor infants one can identify that it is milk allergy until and unless there is awareness of the symptoms. It is very important to know what the symptoms of milk allergy are in order to avoid it.
Milk allergy has been classified into three types:
Type 1 – Type 1 allergy occurs immediately after the intake of milk. The symptoms are rashes, hives, and eczema on the skin.
Type 2 – Type 2 allergy starts showing symptom after a couple of hours in forms of diarrhea and vomiting.
Type 3 – Type 3 symptoms occur 20 hours later than consuming milk. These symptoms are acute diarrhea or dysentery.
The more comprehensive list of milk allergy symptoms include – recurrent bronchitis, ear infections, coughing, irritability, rash, hive, eczema, vomiting, abdominal pain, wheezy chest, nasal stuffiness, chronic runny nose, recurrent sinusitis and so on.
So the three major areas affected with the symptoms of milk allergy are - gastrointestinal, dermatological, and respiratory. Most of the infants show the milk allergy symptoms after birth and pass stool, vomit, show irritability, or develop colic pain immediately after consuming cow’s milk. However, their resistance grows with age and gradually their system gets tuned except in a few cases.
A person who has milk allergy need to refrain not only from milk but also from food products that contain milk, for example, chocolates, ice cream, desserts, or any other food that has milk mentioned on the ingredient list. Milk allergy comes in the category of food allergy and can be diagnosed with the help of skin prick test or any other allergy test.
If you exhibit symptoms of milk allergy then you should consult your doctor. People who are allergic to milk protein become worried that they will lose on the calcium content of the milk. However, there is nothing to worry as the same amount of calcium can be take in the form of supplements or other food sources.
So after knowing what the symptoms of milk allergy are one should avoid all kinds of milk based foods like curd, cheese, etc. However it is better to consult your doctor before concluding that the allergy is from milk only.
About the Author
Allergist Paul Fryatt, M.D. has been in this profession from last 24 years. He made great achievements in his profession. He made an initiative to open a Family Allergy Clinic in 1985 to help his patients who were not reacting to traditional allergy treatment programs. Moreover he has explored the treatment to overcome allergy symptoms to reclaim quality of life through his convenient, no-shots therapy.
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