Menu for an allergic child: selection of a diet, age-specific feeding norms, complementary foods, allowed and prohibited foods

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

In the article, we will look at how to make a menu for an allergic child.

Often, information appears in various sources that following a strict diet for allergies can be not only beneficial, but also harmful. Therefore, the approach to building a diet for a child suffering from allergies should be comprehensive and deliberate.

Allergy is a disease that develops due to an inadequate response of the body to the ingestion of foreign proteins. Such substances can enter the body in various ways:

1. Food.
2. Parenteral. With such a hit, an allergy to insect poisons, a drug allergy can develop.
3. Contact. As a result, contact dermatitis develops.
4. Aerogenic. This type of contact causes hay fever.

Prevention of food allergies involves eliminating certain foods from the diet. It can be quite difficult to create a menu for an allergic child.

Elimination Diet

Such a diet is quite specific and involves the exclusion from the list of consumed foods only certain, specific ones that cause hypersensitivity reactions. Specific diets are used when it is not possible to make an accurate diagnosis or when the diagnosis is at an early stage.

To determine the allergen, one product is excluded from the diet and the patient's condition is monitored.

Non-Specific Diet

This diet is basic. It is necessary to reduce the overall nutritional load on the body when allergens are excluded from the diet.

Such a diet is necessary for a person with allergies of any kind and at the initial stages of allergy diagnosis.

Thus, the task of a hypoallergenic diet is as follows:

1. Replenishing the lack of excluded trace elements and nutrients through the use of other products.
2. Reduce overall allergen load.
3. Exclusion of body contact with the allergen.
4. Trigger allergen diagnosis.

The first point is the most important, since a strict hypoallergenic diet in children is necessary only during periods of severe exacerbations until therapy is prescribed. At other times, one should not so much exclude contact with food allergens as form a balanced, complete diet that will take into account such an exception.

Let's take a closer look at the diet menu for allergic children.

General principlesformulating a hypoallergenic diet for children

When forming a diet, it is important to take into account the characteristics of the child's body.

In addition, remember that children have a higher (than adults) need for fiber and protein. This is due to the high degree of activity of children (in particular, at the age of 3-7 years), as well as the need for proper nutrition of all organs and systems. However, practice shows that it is animal proteins that most often cause inadequate allergic responses of the body. This must be taken into account when compiling the menu for an allergic child at 5 years old.

It is also important that there is a high prevalence of allergy to milk proteins. There are some differences between adult and childhood allergies:

1. In many children, an immune response is combined with a non-immune response. In such cases, a pseudo-allergy is formed.
2. Polyallergenic sensitization often occurs.
3. As the child grows older, the risk of cross-allergy increases.

The last difference is mainly due to the expansion of the children's diet.

If we take into account all the described features, then we can single out the main principles for the formation of a diet for allergic children and a menu for the week:

1. It is necessary to strictly control the balance, the usefulness of the diet.
2. It is important to exclude not only causative allergens, but also cross-irritants.
3. An exception is a prerequisiteproducts that are histamine liberators.
4. Sour-milk products are allowed.
5. It is important to exclude animal protein as much as possible, replacing it with vegetable protein.
6. If you have a food-type allergy, it is imperative to find out the trigger allergen.
7. It is necessary to follow a diet for any pathology of allergic origin, whether it is contact dermatitis, hay fever, food hypersensitivity.

Unspecific diet is commonly understood as the exclusion of all foods that are highly allergenic. Prescribe such a diet at the first visit to the allergist with a complaint of a hypersensitivity reaction.

It is customary to use the most extended elimination diets. Specialists classify all products into three groups according to their allergenic activity:

1. High activity foods: any spices, celery, melon, all nuts, cocoa beans, chocolate products, baker's yeast, bananas, citrus fruits, tomatoes, chicken meat, fish, milk, chicken eggs.
2. Medium activity foods: raspberries, pineapple, kiwi, grapes, apples, apricots, beans, peas, soybeans, beets, cucumbers, carrots, oat products, barley, rice, rye products, wheat, turkey, horse meat, pork, beef.
3. Foods of weak activity: cranberries, cranberries, blueberries, lettuce, watermelon, pears, prunes, pumpkin, turnips, cabbage, zucchini, buckwheat, rabbit meat, lamb.

Pediatrician Komarovsky identifies six of the most active allergens among foods: fish, wheat, milk protein, peanuts, soy, chicken meat.

Ado Diet

The diet, developed by the allergist, immunologist, pathophysiologist A. D. Ado, involves the rejection of aggressive food and its replacement with a more gentle one.

The main advantages of this diet are:

1. The ability to introduce obligate allergens into the diet in turn, which allows you to determine the irritant that causes the reaction.
2. Simultaneous exclusion of all allergens, so that the clinical manifestations of allergies are quickly eliminated.
3. Availability of a specific list of prohibited foods.

But this technique also has certain disadvantages:

1. There is no focus on the individual characteristics of the body of each child.
2. Extremely non-specific.

Foods forbidden for children with allergies

The Ado method involves the use of the following products: apple compote, tea, sugar, baked apples, dill, parsley, fresh cucumbers, lean white bread, rice, oatmeal, buckwheat, sunflower, butter, kefir products, curdled milk, cottage cheese masses, vegetable, cereal soups, boiled beef.

From the menu for an allergic child should be excluded: alcohol, honey, muffins, pineapples, strawberries, strawberries, milk, quail, chicken eggs, mushrooms, eggplant. Tomatoes, spices, smoked meats, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, whole poultry, seafood, fish, nuts, citrus.

Ado diet example

Menu for an allergic child for a week according to the Ado method canlook like this.

Monday

1. Breakfast: oatmeal porridge cooked with water, bread with butter, tea with sugar.
2. Lunch: apple compote, coleslaw with vegetable oil, broccoli with boiled tongue, vegetable broth soup.
3. Snack: peach juice, hard cookies.
4. Dinner: tea, beef meatballs, mashed potatoes.
5. Second dinner: gingerbread, yogurt.

Menu for a week of diet for children with allergies is made up of simple products.

Tuesday

1. Breakfast: chicory, water pancakes, apple jam.
2. Lunch: tea, beef stroganoff, buckwheat on the water.
3. Snack: savory biscuit, apple.
4. Dinner: tea, cabbage rolls.
5. Second dinner: lean cookies, fermented baked milk.

Wednesday

1. Breakfast: water porridge, tea, bread and butter.
2. Lunch: tea, sausage, vegetable stew, vegetable soup.
3. Snack: Viennese waffles, drinking yogurt.
4. Dinner: sausage, stewed cabbage.
5. Second dinner: gingerbread, yogurt.

This is a menu for a 3 year old allergic child.

Thursday

1. Breakfast: tea, bread, banana, yogurt.
2. Lunch: dried fruit compote, minced meat cooked in a double boiler, noodles.
3. Snack: prunes.
4. Dinner: cranberry juice, sausage, vegetable stew.
5. Second dinner: carrots with sugar and sour cream.

Friday

1. Breakfast: cherry juice, raisins, baked apples.
2. Lunch: tea, salad fromcabbage, stewed beef, mashed potatoes, pea soup cooked in vegetable broth.
3. Snack: lean puff, yogurt.
4. Dinner: rose hips, tongue, green beans, cauliflower, boiled rice.
5. Second dinner: gingerbread, yogurt.

Saturday

1. Breakfast: chicory, toast with cheese, rice porridge on the water.
2. Lunch: tea, beef meatballs, buckwheat porridge.
3. Snack: dried apricots.
4. Dinner: vegetable soup, cucumber salad.
5. Second dinner: cookies, fermented baked milk.

Sunday

1. Breakfast: tea, cottage cheese casserole, jam.
2. Lunch: chicory, coleslaw, boiled beef.
3. Snack: banana, cottage cheese.
4. Dinner: peach juice, sausage, noodles.
5. Second dinner: dried fruit, yogurt.

We emphasize once again that such a diet menu for children with allergies is suitable at any age, but older than 2 years.

Special diet

A specific diet involves dietary nutrition based on the symptom complex of a certain disease and taking into account the presence of allergies to certain irritants.

1. Diet for respiratory allergies. If a child has hay fever, it is important to exclude cross allergens. This will prevent the development of oral allergies. The list of cross allergens depends on which pollen is the allergen. In the presence of bronchial asthma, it is important to exclude the use of honey.
2. Diet does not play a special role in contact dermatitis provoked by non-food allergies. If the dermatitis is atopic and is due to the presence of a food allergy, a diet should be carefully formed.
3. Food allergy. Such an allergy involves the elimination of the trigger allergen and all cross-stimuli from the diet. There are several standard diet tables: dairy-free diet, grain-free diet, egg protein sensitivity diet, soy allergy diet, mold and yeast allergy diet.

Sometimes you need to create a menu without dairy products for allergic children.

Dairy-free diet

Diet food of this type is prescribed in case of sensitivity to the proteins contained in cow's milk. If the child cannot tolerate milk and products based on it, the following should be excluded from the diet: condensed milk, cheese, ice cream, cottage cheese, yogurt, cream, fermented baked milk, kefir, whey, margarine, powdered milk, cow's milk.

Often there are traces of milk in sausages, sausage, biscuit, waffles, sauces, creams, sweets, confectionery. Therefore, it is important to study the composition of a product before giving it to a child suffering from allergies. On the packaging, milk protein may be labeled as lactoglobulin, lactalbumin, calcium caseinate, potassium caseinate, sodium caseinate, buttermilk, casein hydrolysate, casein.

Compensate for the lack of dairy products in the diet can be legumes, soy, poultry, lean meat. In addition, people who are allergic to cow's milk often tolerate mare well andgoat milk, as well as many fermented milk products.

With a dairy-free diet, calcium and vitamin D are required.

Gluten free diet

If a child is allergic to cereals, ice cream, soy sauce, chocolate, ketchup, mayonnaise, pasta, rolls, cookies, bran, breadcrumbs, bread, cereal side dishes, cereals, dishes, in based on wheat.

Grains may be labeled as monosodium glutamate, m alt, vegetable starch, vegetable protein hydrolysates on packaging.

Care should be taken when using products containing flavors, thickeners, emulsifiers.

Compensate for the lack of these products can be corn flour, buckwheat, rice, rye, oats, barley.

Diet for allergies to chicken eggs

In this case, sherbet, meringue, nougat, sausages, sausages, mayonnaise, some pastries, marshmallows, scrambled eggs should be excluded from the child's menu.

Chicken egg derivatives may be labeled as vitellin, ovomucoid, ovomucin, livetin, lecithin, lysozyme, globulins, albumins on the label.

Egg whites can be replaced with potato starch, gelatin, cottage cheese, soy flour, flaxseed.

Many parents wonder how to make a menu for children with allergies at 4?

Hypoallergenic nutrition for children of all ages

It is always important to consider that nutrition for children of different ages has certain characteristics.

The main allergen for children under the age of one year is the protein found in cow's milk. ATIn connection with this, products with its content are introduced into complementary foods quite late, not earlier than the baby is 8 months old. As for basic nutrition, this issue is relevant for those children who are on mixed or artificial feeding. Mixtures on cow's milk in this case are contraindicated, it is necessary to use hypoallergenic products, for example: Frisopep AS, Pregestimil, Nutramigen, Tuttel-Peptidi, Nutrilak Peptidi, Nutrilon Peptidi. If the child is also allergic to other products, it is necessary to use hypoallergenic mixtures, but it is allowed to use products that contain partially or moderately hydrolyzed casein: Theme GA, Humana GA, Nutrilon GA, Nutrilak GA.

If the baby is breastfeeding, then it is important to adjust the diet of a lactating woman - she should follow a gluten-free or dairy-free diet.

Complementary feeding of such children should be later than in normal situations - not earlier than from 5.5 months.

And what is the menu for an allergic child a year? The most important diet therapy is at the age of 1-3 years. Hypoallergenic nutrition for children per year:

1. Involves exclusion of highly allergenic foods from the child's diet, refusal to switch to a common table, reduction in the amount of s alt, spices, and chemical additives. What else does the menu for a one-year-old allergic child suggest?
2. Fermented milk products can only be consumed if well tolerated. This must be taken into account when compiling the menu for a one-year-old allergic child for a week.
3. It is strictly forbidden to drink milk.

Also, questions are raised by the menu of an allergic child at 2 years old. At this age, a hypoallergenic diet allows the use of quail or chicken eggs (if the child tolerates them well), but does not allow meals at the common table.

Hypoallergenic diet at 3 years old:

1. Allows you to transfer the child to a common table, add fish, nuts to the diet.
2. It is not recommended to feed your child with tomatoes, citrus fruits, mushrooms, strawberries, strawberries, tropical fruits, cocoa, chocolate, and spices.

The hypoallergenic menu for a 3-year-old allergic child differs, as a rule, only in the portion size, which is regulated by age feeding norms. That is, the set of products that can be used to feed a child 4, 5 years old and older is no different.

It should be noted that it is much easier to control the menu for children with allergies at 4 years old than teenagers. Therefore, it is important to explain to the child why he should not eat certain foods.

Foods with flavors, flavors, dyes, fast food, alcohol are prohibited in adolescence.

It should always be remembered that the formation of an approximate menu for an allergic child is a responsible process, during which it is important to take into account many factors, including the type of allergy, the trigger factor, the age of the child. That is why it is better to trust a specialist to draw up a diet.

It must also be remembered that compliancea hypoallergenic diet for a child is the main and most important element in the treatment of an allergic disease.

Menu recipes for allergic children

Porridge from millet with pumpkin:

1. It is necessary to clean and cut into cubes 200 grams of pumpkin, pour it with a glass of water, send it to stew for half an hour.
2. Rinse and add 0.5 cups of millet to pumpkin.
3. Add 1.5 cups of water to the pot.
4. Add s alt and sugar to taste, cook for 20 minutes.

Vegetable Broccoli Stew:

1. Peel, chop, put onions, carrots, potatoes in a saucepan.
2. Pour in water, s alt, simmer for 20 minutes.
3. Add frozen broccoli and peas to vegetables, stir, cook for 20 minutes.
4. garnish with parsley, herbs.

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free & Egg-Free Cupcakes:

1. Peel and cut 100 g of an apple (zucchini, bananas, pears are allowed), pour a glass of water, chop with a blender.
2. Add 5 g of soda, previously slaked with vinegar.
3. Sift into a separate bowl 180 g of rice flour (you can use corn flour), add s alt, 120 g of sugar. Pour the resulting mixture to the fruit, mix.
4. Pour in 180 ml of vegetable oil, stir.
5. Spread the resulting mass into molds, bake on convection mode at a temperature of 180 degrees.

Carrot Apple Casserole:

1. Peel and boil carrots.
2. Peel apples, add to carrots and chop with a blender.
3. Addegg beaten with a whisk, three tablespoons of semolina, 4 tablespoons of sugar, cinnamon.
4. Knead the dough until smooth.
5. Pour into a mold, bake in the oven.

Green Vermicelli Chicken Soup:

1. Boil the chicken fillet, remove the foam.
2. Chop finely green onions, dill, parsley, onions, grate carrots.
3. Remove the meat from the broth, grind it.
4. S alt the broth, add spices, s alt, vegetables, vermicelli, meat.
5. Cook 15 minutes.
6. Add herbs, cook for 5 minutes.
7. Serve soup with croutons.

Cherry jelly:

1. Bring a liter of water to a boil, pour vanillin into it, half a glass of sugar.
2. Add cherries, boil for 2 minutes.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of starch to a glass of cold water.
4. Pour the resulting solution into a saucepan with cherries, cook for 5 minutes, stirring continuously.
5. Recommended to cool before use.

Compliance with a special diet in case of an allergy in a child, careful monitoring of his condition often allows you to completely get rid of allergic manifestations. As the baby grows, his digestive system becomes stronger, susceptibility to allergens decreases and may completely disappear by the age of 7.

Garden menu for allergic children

There are no clear rules for organizing the nutrition of an allergic child in a preschool educational institution, prescribed in any regulatory act, to date. Thus, in eachkindergarten, this issue is resolved separately. But in any case, the leadership is obliged (preferably together with the parents) to think about how you can help the child.

There may be various options for catering for an allergic child between parents and the management of the preschool educational institution: a separate diet table, only lunch in the garden, their own meals (unlikely case, because this will entail a violation of existing food provision rules).

This is how the ideal scenario looks if the management is conscientious about their work and fulfills all the duties assigned by law. In practice, the situation is quite different. Often, parents of children with allergies are denied such conditions, based on the fact that a regular preschool educational institution does not have the opportunity and / or is not obliged to cook separately.

We looked at how to create a menu for an allergic child.