Food Allergy Treatment Taunton & Norwood MA

Food, Drug, and Bee Sting Evaluation Saves Lives

Food, drug, and insect sting allergies can be fatal. The following signs and symptoms indicate serious allergies:

01

Oral:

itching and/or swelling of the mouth, lips, tongue, and throat.

02

Skin:

general itching and swelling, rashes, eczema, hives, blisters.

03

Respiratory:

nasal congestion, sneezing, hoarseness, coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath.

04

Digestive:

nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea.

05

Circulatory:

dizziness and/or fainting brought on by a sudden drop in blood pressure, shock, cardiac arrest.

If you experience a severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis) or witness one in someone else, please call 911. Once your acute case resolves, or even if you merely suspect an allergy, you should consult an allergist right away for a food, drug, and bee sting evaluation.

The most common food allergens are:

Understanding your food allergies is the key to living without fear. Our goal at Allergy and Asthma Care is to allow people with food allergies to eat a variety of foods.

  • Eggs.
  • Milk.
  • Peanuts.
  • Tree nuts.
  • Shellfish.
  • Soy.
  • Wheat.
  • Fish

However, many other foods, such as corn, gelatin, strawberries, spices, seeds, and even meat can cause allergic reactions.

Severe food allergies can result in death, so if you suspect a food allergy, it is important to seek evaluation by an allergist as soon as possible. If you have severe food allergies, you should wear a medical alert bracelet, or tag and carry an epinephrine injector pen at all times.

A food allergy can develop at any age but is more common in infants and children. Food reactions may appear several minutes to several hours after eating. Keeping a diary of all foods eaten may be helpful in identifying patterns.

Our goal at Allergy & Asthma Care is to allow people with food allergies to eat a variety of foods safely and without fear.

Egg allergy and flu vaccines

In the past, people with egg allergies were told to avoid the flu vaccine or have skin testing before getting the vaccine. However, because the risk of reaction is so small, the Centers for Disease Control now recommends vaccination for all individuals even those with an egg allergy without the need for special testing.

Most people with egg allergy should be able to get the vaccine in their primary care physician’s office. However, if either your doctor or you are nervous about getting the vaccine, we are happy to give the vaccine in our office for the first time. However, anyone with a history of an allergic reaction to the flu shot itself should be evaluated by an allergist before any further flu vaccines are given.

Medication allergies are often misdiagnosed

Allergies to medications can be challenging to diagnose and manage. It is often hard to determine whether a reaction is related to a medication, a condition for which the medication has been prescribed, or another problem entirely.

01

Penicillin

02

Penicillin-related drugs such as Augmentin, amoxicillin, and ampicillin.

03

Sulfa-based drugs such as Bactrim, Pediazole, and Septra.

However, almost any drug can cause an allergic reaction. 

For many years, people with possible penicillin allergies were told to avoid penicillin and all related antibiotics. However, many people with a history of a reaction to penicillin do not react to it in the future. In some cases, a previous reaction was not a penicillin allergy to begin with.

If you have been told that you are allergic to penicillin, you can be specifically tested for an accurate diagnosis. The first step is a skin test. If this test is negative, you will take an oral sample under your allergist's supervision.

Up to 90 percent of people who think they have a penicillin allergy find that they do not after testing. They can have this warning removed from their medical records and take a wider variety of antibiotics in the future.

Food reactions: anaphylaxis, allergy, or intolerance?

If food allergies are suspected in your case, a wider variety than usual of foods may be tested. Perhaps surprisingly, skin tests for food allergies are just as accurate as or even more so than blood tests, and they yield answers faster.

Anaphylaxis is a severe, possibly fatal, reaction to a food or other allergen. The only currently accepted treatment for food allergy is avoidance of the food and carrying injectable epinephrine (such as an EpiPen) to treat allergic reactions if they occur. As allergists, we work with patients to safely incorporate foods into the diet and to avoid foods that cause reaction.

Some people are merely intolerant of a food and not truly allergic to it. A common example is lactose intolerance, which is an inability to digest milk sugar. The treatment of an intolerance—avoidance of the offending food—is the same, but the reaction is not dangerous.

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