Nutrition of allergic babies and children

A. Cantani

Department of Pediatrics, Allergy and Clinical Immunology Division, “La Sapienza” University – Rome (Italy)

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• Pediatrics

Abstract. – Atopic diseases of babies and children are frequent, disabilitating, chronic and even life-threatening. The currently available cow’s milk (CM) substitutes for infants with CM allergy (CMA) are soy protein (SP) formulas (SPFs), hydrolyzed formulas (HF), and home-made meat-based formulas. However, in the past few years the antigenicity/allergenicity of SPFs has been over-emphasized in the medical literature. We have demonstrated that SPF allergy incidence in oral food challenge (OFC)/double-blind food challenge (DBFC)-based epidemiological studies attains 3-4%. CM-based protein hydrolysates have provoked 200 severe and less severe reactions.