FOOD FOR THOUGHT
How Medical or Behavioral Problems May Be Related to the Food Your Child Is Eating?

Though the role of food allergies continues to be debated within the medical community, we are still learning about the many ways that food allergies can develop and impact children. In the course of my 29 years as a pediatrician, however, I have encountered a number of situations in which food allergies have been directly related to childhood medical and behavioral problems. The following two medical histories illustrate how the accurate diagnosis and treatment of food allergies can provide relief to otherwise baffling disorders.

Bill's Favorite Food
At the age of eight, Bill suffered severe daily migraine headaches, I referred Bill to a pediatric neurologist, who diagnosed psychosomatic migraines. Based on the results of physical exams and EEG and other neurologic tests, a medical cause for the headaches was ruled out. This was in 1980, and I was beginning to hear from parents about certain foods possibly causing recurrent infections and difficult behavior in children. I asked Bill's parents if he had a favorite food. They told me that he loved peanut butter and ate it every day. I recommended that Bill's parents remove peanut butter from his diet for 14 days. We were all surprised and delighted that Bill's headaches went away during the two-week period. Bill's profound clinical response to the elimination of a craved food piqued my interest in food allergies. I then began to pursue further study toward the correlation between food allergies and chronic medical problems in children.

Apples, Rice and Michael
In July, 1996, I examined a four-year-old boy with a history of severe behavior problems, which included episodes of hitting other children and throwing objects. Michael's medical history included a problem with reflux, manifested by significant spitting and chronic diarrhea between ages one and two. At the time, removing milk and eggs from his diet helped the gastrointestinal complaint. Aside from occasional ear infections, Michael was a healthy child. Based on this history, I decided to allergy test the foods in his diet. There was no indication that pollens and molds should be treated as well. Michael was treated using sublingual immunotherapy for 19 allergic foods. His most significant reactions were to corn, peanuts, apples and rice. Based on the allergy skin test reactions, Michael's mother eliminated apples and rice from his diet completely. Only two months later, Michael was doing much better in school. His school reports between early summer and early fall depicted a dramatic transformation. Teachers now described Michael to be enthusiastic and attentive, with more productive work habits.

What Is A Food Allergy?
The issues that the medical community have with food allergies begin with the definition of the term itself. To a physician trained in an American medical school, food allergies are usually considered "fixed food reactions." Foods such as shellfish, eggs and peanuts can cause severe and adverse reactions--such as hives, asthma and difficulty breathing--in an individual shortly after ingestion. In my opinion, these reactions represent no more than ten percent of all food allergy problems. Hidden food allergies involve a food, or combination of foods, which when ingested frequently cause symptoms such as headaches or aggressive behavior. These food allergies are termed "hidden" because we do not typically associate particular foods with an allergic reaction. In addition, hidden food allergies can cause many other medical problems, including: recurrent ear infections, and urinary frequency.