While the most common food allergies in childhood are egg and milk, Christmas cases trigger allergy to nuts, especially in children who take them for the first time.
Between 3 and 8 percent of Spanish children are allergic to some type of food being allergy to nuts "one of the most dangerous and persistent." Therefore, the Spanish Society of Clinical Immunology and Pediatric Allergy (SEICAP) warns to be very careful with what we give children to try at Christmas.
There are many Christmas foods that contain nuts, a food with high allergenic power, or traces, such as some marzipans, polvorones, nougat and other traditional sweets.
The allergy to nuts is the latest, as it does not appear until children begin to try these foods until at least the three years, the recommended age for its introduction in infant feeding.
Any dried fruit can give allergy, although the most frequent are peanuts, nuts and hazelnuts, also cashews, pine nuts, pistachios, and sometimes almonds and sunflower seeds.
Symptoms of nut allergy
The symptoms that occur when consuming nuts are usually more aggressive than the most common allergy symptoms.
Hives may appear (hives or hives on the skin), tingling in the tongue, feeling of tightness in the throat, angioedema, asthma, rhinitis, conjunctivitis, digestive symptoms, and even cause anaphylaxis, which can become lethal if not acted upon on time.
In very allergic people the reactions can be very serious even with a small amount of food.
If the symptoms get worse, you should go to the emergency department immediately.
Recommendations on the consumption of nuts in children
In children who have never tried nuts before, the first recommendation is to wait until three years and offer the fruit one by one, separately, in order to identify which one causes allergic reaction, if any. Then, monitor the child to check that there are no allergy symptoms.
In the case of children already diagnosed with a nut allergy, and therefore should avoid them, parents should watch especially the meals, since there are many dishes to which nuts are introduced in the preparation.
For those children previously diagnosed with some other food allergy, special care must be taken when trying nuts, as they are more likely to develop a new one.
Choking Hazard
In addition to the risk of allergy, the danger of choking from nuts.
It is not recommended to give them to young children because they still do not have the ability to crush them well. They can choke and pass into the airways instead of the digestive tract causing suffocation or lung injury.
Therefore, the Spanish Association of Primary Care Pediatrics (AEPap) prohibits giving nuts to children until they have reached five or six years. Or if necessary, give them crushed.
In conclusion, at Christmas you have to be careful with the allergy to nuts in children It is more common that we find this food group at Christmas tables.
Of course, if the child is the right age to try them and once proven that they are not dangerous, nuts are a food with excellent nutritional properties.
