Signs of a food allergy

Ronald Ferdman, MD Pediatrician, Allergy & Immunology, Children's Hospital Of Los Angeles, shares advice for parents on the common and immediate signs of a food allergy in kids
Common Signs Of A Food Allergy In Children
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Signs of a food allergy

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So usually it’s pretty easy to tell when a child is having a food allergy and the reason is most food allergic reactions happen very, very quickly – usually within minutes, or maybe at most a half hour after you eat the food. So a lot of times the parents can know right away that their child is having an allergic reaction. And the type of reactions that you get with food allergies are pretty standard. So you would get hives, or itching, or a skin rash – some kids will get a stomach ache, or they might get throwing up, or a little bit of diarrhea. And occasionally, the kids will have trouble breathing. So usually these things happen so quickly that parents come in and they tell me, “You know, I think my child has a food allergy,” and usually they’re right, because they make that association. There are certain diseases where maybe the reaction might take a little bit longer, like for example eczema, it might take an hour or two for somebody’s eczema to flare after they eat a food, but like I said, most are very quick. There are certain reactions that aren’t caused by food, so like autism or learning disorder ADHD – they’re not really food related even though a lot of people think they are. And so usually, it’s pretty obvious.

Ronald Ferdman, MD Pediatrician, Allergy & Immunology, Children's Hospital Of Los Angeles, shares advice for parents on the common and immediate signs of a food allergy in kids

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Ronald Ferdman, MD

Pediatrician, Allergy and Immunology, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Ronald Ferdman received his BA from the University of California at San Diego and his MD from Hahnemann University (now Drexel University) in Philadelphia.  He completed both his Pediatric residency and his fellowship in Allergy/Immunology at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, then obtained a Masters in Medical Education (MEd) from the University of Southern California (USC) School of Education.  He currently is an attending physician in the Division of Clinical Immunology and Allergy at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.  He is board certified allergy/immunologist, and is a fellow in the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.  His current interests include management of allergic and immunologic diseases in high-risk children and education for families and clinicians. He is a California native, where he currently lives with his wife Susan and their three of four children, and spends his spare time wishing for more.

 

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