ALLERGY PANEL CHILD - 26 ALLERGENS

Overview

Young infants are especially prone to the development of food allergies. In younger children, the most common foods implicated are milk and eggs. These allergies tend to be self-limited, and most will resolve within a few years with appropriate elimination diets. As in older children and adults, most allergies to the more allergenic foods (such as nuts, fish and seafood) tend to persist throughout life. Atopic children have a genetic predisposition to develop immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to a variety of dietary and inhalant allergens to which they are exposed. Subsequent exposure to the IgE produced that has fixed on mast cells results in a discharge of chemical mediators that causes both an immediate reaction and then a late inflammatory response in the target end organ.