Food Allergy in the Breastfed Infant

Kirsi Järvinen-Seppo, MD, PhD

May 13, 2014

Food Allergy in Breastfed Infants

Infants who are exclusively breastfed can show signs and symptoms of food allergies.^{[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]} This is thought to be due to maternal dietary macromolecules that are absorbed in the gut and transmitted in human milk,^[2,3,10] and cow's milk, egg, wheat, and peanut allergens have been detected in human milk.^{[3,6,10,11,12,13]}

Atopic dermatitis is the most common manifestation seen during the breastfeeding period, and is occasionally caused by food allergies. Immediate-type (eg, IgE-mediated) allergic reactions, including hives and anaphylaxis, have occasionally been reported to occur through exposure to dietary proteins ingested in breast milk, and confirmed in physician-supervised oral challenge procedures.^[6] Gastrointestinal manifestations of food allergy, including abdominal pain/infantile colic and proctocolitis, and well-defined presentations, such as allergic eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE)-associated gastroenteritis and, rarely, food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome (FPIES), have been described in exclusively breastfed children.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Next Section

Cite this: Food Allergy in the Breastfed Infant - Medscape - May 13, 2014.

Comments

Commenting is limited to medical professionals. To comment please Log-in.

Comments on Medscape are moderated and should be professional in tone and on topic. You must declare any conflicts of interest related to your comments and responses. Please see our Commenting Guide for further information. We reserve the right to remove posts at our sole discretion.