In one direction, a child might just have some ‘intolerance’ ... as opposed to an allergy. So, one common intolerance is lactose intolerance, which is ... an enzyme problem ... .
Allergy is different. Allergy is really an immune response. The part of the body that typically fights infections, for example, is essentially attacking the protein that’s in the food; not the fat, not the sugar, but the protein ... and that attack ends up causing symptoms.
So ... there are illnesses that a child might have that you might think is a food allergy, but really it’s not. And then in the other direction there may be times when you don’t think of food allergy and it turn out that ... was the issue.
So not matter what direction you’re thinking about this in, if you’re seeing symptoms in your child, it’s very important to talk to your pediatricians about them.
Dr. Scott Sicherer
Understanding and Managing Your Child's Food Allergies
Professor, researcher, and author
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