Allergy Alert

Marlane Melican, of New York City, breastfed her baby without problems until the day she gave her 5 1/2-month-old, Charlie, oatmeal (made with breast milk) for the first time. A few hours later, Charlie had blood in his diaper, and the pediatrician told her not to feed him oatmeal again. But the bloody stools continued. Ten days later, her doctor sent her to a pediatric gastroenterologist, who told her that the oatmeal hadn't caused the problem -- her child actually had a milk allergy. It turned out that Charlie had built up a sensitivity to the cow's milk that passed through her breast milk. Melican cut all dairy products out of her diet, and she can't feed Charlie any dairy until he's at least 15 months old, at which point he'll likely have outgrown the allergy.

Although studies have found that breastfeeding your baby can reduce his risk of developing allergies and asthma, reactions to milk in babies who are exclusively breastfed are actually on the rise, says Parents adviser Hugh Sampson, M.D., chief of pediatric allergy at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, in New York City. Food allergies in general are also increasingly common in children -- up to 6 percent of kids under 3 years old have one. Often, a baby with food allergies will develop other allergies as he grows.

Allergies occur when the immune system overreacts to a foreign substance called an allergen -- a food, a cat, or a dust mite, for instance -- and treats it like a harmful invader. In reaction, the body produces histamine and other symptom- triggering chemicals in the nose, eyes, throat, lungs, skin, or gastrointestinal tract. In order to develop an allergy, a baby must first be exposed to the allergen -- through breast milk, by eating, or even in utero. When he has been repeatedly exposed, his immune system builds up specific antibodies (called IgE antibodies) to the allergen and becomes sensitized to it. After this happens, the baby will have an allergic reaction every time he is exposed to the substance.

Unfortunately, it's not always easy to figure out if your baby has an allergy. Babies can't tell you when their stomach hurts, their skin itches, or they're having trouble breathing. That's why you have to be on the lookout for important clues -- because diagnosing and treating an allergy early will not only make your child feel better but prevent his symptoms from worsening in the future.