Egg allergy in children

 Egg is one of the commonest foods that could trigger allergic reactions; especially in children. In the case of a child who is allergic to egg, the immune system recognizes the egg's proteins as a nasty foreign body which stimulates the allergic defensive mechanisms to produce antibodies and release histamine.

Egg allergy usually appears in children in their first year of life, the episode may last for few minutes to hours. Anyway, egg allergy usually fades up when the kid reaches the age of 5 years old, but in rare circumstances it may continue until puberty or even throughout life.

Egg allergy mainly affects 3 body organs, as follow:

• Skin: in the form of skin redness or skin rash.
• Respiratory system: in the form of runny nose and sneeze. In severe cases the kid may suffer from tight chest, cough, laryngeal and pharyngeal edema that may lead to suffocation due to airway obstruction.
• GIT: in the form of abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea. The doctors sometimes misdiagnose this clinical picture as gastroenteritis, so every gastroenteritis in a child with food allergy is diagnosed as allergy until prove otherwise.

Management of egg allergy is getting away from egg or any food containing egg, antihistamines could be helpful to get rid of the associated symptoms. In severe episodes of allergy (chest pain, dyspnea, syncope); immediate injection of epinephrine is an important initial step, and then the child should be admitted in the nearest hospital under observation for at least 12 hours.