Food Allergies: Suspect, Test, Avoid

From WebMD.com

March 15, 2006 -- The nation's major allergy organizations have agreed on how best to diagnose and manage food allergies.

The new "practice parameters," from a panel of allergy experts, are a state-of-the-art guide on how to detect and treat food allergy.

Food allergies are common -- and commonly misunderstood by doctors as well as patients, says panel co-chairman Jay M. Portnoy, MD, who is chief of allergy, asthma, and immunology at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and vice president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

"I see patients all the time who go to a doctor, skin-test positive for lots of different foods, and are advised to avoid all of these foods," Portnoy tells WebMD. "It makes their life miserable. And it turns out they are not truly allergic to all these foods after all."

Portnoy's complaint rings true with patient advocate Anne Muñoz-Furlong, founder and CEO of The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN).

"Some parents never suspect food allergies until their child ends up at the emergency room -- where they might be told it is a food allergy, or they might not," Muñoz-Furlong tells WebMD. "Or if the child first has mild symptoms, like eczema, they may not realize it is a food allergy. And then the entire family suffers until a diagnosis is made and the food is eliminated from the diet."

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