Screening for Cow Milk Allergy in infants and preschool Children

Abstract

Cow's milk protein allergy is a common condition encountered in children with incidence estimated as 2% to 7.5% in the first year of life. Cow’s milk allergy is an adverse health effect arising from a specific immune response that occurs reproducibly on exposure to a protein present in cow milk. However, symptoms are nonspecific. Without an appropriate diagnostic workup, including food challenge procedures, there is a high risk of both over- and underdiagnosis and thus over- and undertreatment. We conducted the present cross-sectional in order to assess the prevalence, risk factors, and clinical manifestations for cow's milk allergy among Egyptian infants and children. We recruited consecutively 800 young Egyptian children (aged 3 months - 5 years) who were coming for primary care units and outpatient clinics of Children’s hospital, Ain Shams University. The mean age of the included infants was 34 ±15 months.