THERE’S ONE MAJOR THING EVERY ALLERGY SUFFERER SHOULD TRY FIRST
Introducing The Allergy Book: Solving Your Family’s Nasal Allergies, Asthma, Food Sensitivities, and Related Health and Behavioral Problems. It comes out April 7 and is available for preorder wherever books are sold online. Here’s a sneak peak into just one of our many approaches to solving allergies.
As pediatricians, Dr. Bill and I see children and parents suffering from allergies almost every day. Throughout our sixty years of combined pediatric experience, there’s one thing we’ve learned that brings relief to many of our patients – one step we advise taking before almost any other – one cause of allergic problems that many of our patients share above all other causes. It’s something that’s supposed to do the body good and something that almost all of us have “Got.” You’ll find it on virtually every breakfast table, school lunch-room, and restaurant menu. You probably guessed it – milk.
Now, milk is an excellent source of protein, fat, and calcium in our diet. Most kids love it, and it can really fill in the nutritional gaps for picky eaters. Where would we be without cheese, yogurt, cream in our coffee, and ice cream? Milk can be a healthy part of the diet . . . unless you are allergic to it, that is.
The colicky breastfed newborn can often find relief when mom eliminates cow’s milk from her diet. The rashy infant can enjoy clear skin again once milk is out of the picture. The toddler with frequent runny stools may firm up once they take a break from milk. The preschooler with recurrent colds and ear infections may finally get well again on a milk-free diet. Fortunately, many kids outgrow milk allergy; a few will find that it follows them into adulthood.
In The Allergy Book, we share our experiences helping parents track down their family’s allergies. And a recurring theme we’ve learned over the years is to rule-out milk allergy when our little patients first present with allergic problems. Testing for milk allergy isn’t always accurate, so a milk-free trial is often warranted despite normal test results. Of course, milk isn’t always the culprit, and we share our roadmap for diagnosing and solving your family’s allergic problems no matter what they may be.
Mild or gluten. For respiratory allergies and recurrent ear infections, milk is much more likely to be the culprit. Even behavioral and GI problems in the early years are more likely to be due to milk.
A close acquaintance of mine just told me that her 13 month old started zoning out, wanted to play by himself all day, throwing up a few times daily, and just developed diarrhea. Hmmm – I wonder what the problem could be? I asked, did you just start giving him milk? Yup – four days prior to all this starting. So, he’s now milk free and back to his usual self. Coincidence? Probably.
To order your copy of the The Allergy Book follow this link.
Dr. Bob
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