What should people with food allergies pay attention to?

For people with food allergies, the most important precautions are not complicated at all. The essence is to carefully avoid allergy risks, prepare adequate emergency plans, keep up with dynamic monitoring, and do not leave anything to chance.

Many people think that avoiding allergies means just not eating foods they are allergic to. In fact, there are many pitfalls. I have met a wheat allergy patient before, and I usually pay attention to my own cooking. However, when I went out and ate a bowl of gluten-free cold skin, I still got red rash all over my back. I know that in order to make the cold skin more chewy, the merchant adds wheat protein powder when kneading the dough. The ingredient list is not fully marked, and there are also common cross-contamination problems. The chopping board where peanuts are cut is used to cut cold vegetables directly, and the container containing mango is not washed and is filled with other fruits, which may affect people with allergies. Nowadays, many people on the Internet say that a small amount of exposure to allergens can gradually desensitize them. There are actually different clinical views on this. For patients with mild allergies who only have a rash and no respiratory or systemic symptoms, some allergists will recommend oral immune tolerance training under the full guidance of professionals to gradually build up resistance to allergens. ； However, many experts are clearly against ordinary people trying this method on their own, especially people with severe allergies who have a history of laryngeal edema and anaphylactic shock. Even exposure to a very small amount of allergens can be fatal, so you must not try it blindly at home.

No matter how careful you are in avoiding allergies, there will inevitably be times when things slip through the net, so you really can’t be lazy in emergency preparedness. I once met a high school sophomore girl who was allergic to eggs. She only had a rash on her wrists every time she touched eggs. She thought it was nothing, and rarely prepared antihistamines. Until she took a bite of a sandwich with egg salad dressing during the last spring outing, and within two minutes she said her throat was tight and she couldn't breathe. Fortunately, the teacher who led the team knew about her situation before, brought her an epinephrine auto-injection pen with her, and sent her to the doctor immediately after the injection, so nothing serious happened. Here we also correct a misunderstanding that many people have: Don’t think that if you are allergic, just take a tablet of loratadine. Antihistamines can only relieve minor symptoms such as rashes and itching. Once chest tightness, throat congestion, or dizziness occur, using epinephrine immediately is the key to saving lives. Go to the hospital for a review immediately after using it. Don’t think that it will be fine once the symptoms are relieved.

Don’t think that once you check your allergens, you’ll be done with it once and for all. Allergies themselves are dynamic. I have a child who developed rashes all over his face after taking a sip of milk. My family strictly prohibited this for ten years. During a review last year, I found that the IgE antibodies in milk had dropped to a safe level. Now I have no problem drinking ordinary pure milk. ； There is also a colleague who was fine eating shrimps and crabs before. After suffering from severe urticaria last year, he suddenly became allergic to freshwater shrimps. Therefore, he takes time to review his allergens every year. This can not only eliminate the food that he has tolerated for a long time, but also detect new allergy risks in time. Don’t be embarrassed to mention your allergy when you go out to eat or order takeout. Every time I go out to dinner with friends who are allergic to mango, I will tell the waiter in advance that people with mango allergies should not put mango in the dishes, and be careful not to get mango juice when handling. Most businesses take this very seriously. The last time we drank milk tea, the clerk even specially changed a container for us to make it in a container that had never touched mango. It is better to ask more questions than to run away to the hospital.