Food Allergies

Individual advice for MilkEgg and Nut are available. Should you be looking for another specific allergy please click here. Our Patient information leaflets may also help you!

What food allergies have in common are the need to avoid the food when shopping, cooking, eating out or ordering take away food, plus the need for the child to develop safe food habits.

Shopping

You will need to get used to scanning ingredients labels! The current EU  law makes it easy to spot the most common allergens eg milk, egg, peanut, but less common allergens can be more challenging. Note however that rules are different in other countries eg sesame is not highlighted on labels in the US. See Food labelling page for more about labels, including “may contain” warnings.

Many supermarkets publish lists of “free from” products online or on request eg Morrisons, or Tesco. Some publish recipes as well!

School/Nursery

You will need to highlight your child’s allergies, they may wish to see a formal letter from your doctor or dietician confirming the diagnosis. You may need to provide an antihistamine and an allergy plan.  For more help, see the  School section. Remember that foods are sometimes used in art, crafts or other practical work eg rice, pasta, lentils.

Associated Allergies

Also called co-sensitivity: this is the idea that when you are allergic to one thing, you may be at risk of being (or becoming) allergic to something else. For example, babies who are allergic to cow’s milk have a higher risk of egg allergy. Other examples are peanut and tree nuts, peanut and pulses, one pulse and other pulses. If you are not sure about a particular food, you should ask your doctor whether it is something to be worried about or not, and whether testing is appropriate or not.

Being Fussy

It is easy to become fussy as a way of avoiding unsafe foods, or to stick to the same foods all the time.  The problem with this is that you then restrict your diet unnecessarily, which makes it harder to eat at other people’s houses or on holiday or at restaurants.  You also run the risk that if a recipe changes (or a different chef makes your usual dish at a restaurant) that you will then have a reaction, because you don’t routinely read labels or ask about ingredients. We recommend good safe food habits, and that you do try new foods/dishes.

Allergy alerts

The Food Standards Agency publishes allergy alerts when a food product is recalled due to undeclared allergens. You can also subscribe to email alerts, eg from the   Anaphylaxis campaign

See also:

Eating Out page

Going to parties page

Travel 

AllergyUK provide factsheets for a variety of allergies including shellfish, sesame and soya.