Take a look at the notice board in any British primary school staff room and you'll almost certainly see some sort of chart showing which children, in which classes, suffer from which allergies. It's not at all unusual for two or three children in each class to have asthma and have to carry inhalers. Maybe one or more will have anaphylaxis - a life-threatening allergic reaction — and will have to keep an Epipen', containing adrenaline, to hand in case they are stung by a bee or wasp or come into contact with peanuts. Then there are the children with eczema, a group of diseases producing unpleasant itching, soreness, reddening and blistering of the skin. There are the hay-fever sufferers, for whom summertime and high pollen counts mean misery, or those who sneeze or wheeze if they come into contact with some kinds of flowers or the class hamster or guinea- pig. The school dinner-table can be a minefield of difficulty as teachers struggle to remember which children must not be given milk, who can't tolerate eggs, and who can't eat anything made with wheat.
What is happening to our children? Think back to your own childhood and it's unlikely that you remember quite so many allergy-related health problems. It's true that diagnosis is improving. Conditions such as asthma tended to be under-diagnosed in the past. However, it does also seem to be the case that allergic reactions are on the increase, to the point where they have even been described as an epidemic.
Some children are only mildly affected by allergies, perhaps coming out in a rash if they eat strawberries, or developing a mild wheeze if they go into a flower-shop or stroke a cat. In other, rarer cases allergies can make life very difficult, not only for the child but for his whole family. Separate meals must be prepared and special food, clothing and household products have to be bought.
The good news is that most allergic conditions can be managed. This book is intended to help parents, carers and all those who come into contact with allergic children to do just that. Allergy management is a partnership between doctors, nurses and other health professionals, parents, teachers and children and young people themselves. Effective treatments are available for some allergic conditions, like asthma, eczema and hay fever. In other conditions, like anaphylaxis which can be life-threatening, allergen avoidance is the main strategy.
Chapter 1 gives you the low-down on allergies generally, including as much as is known about the reasons for the rise in the incidence of these conditions. If you want to know more about asthma, turn to Chapter 2, which explains how this most common of childhood respiratory problems can be controlled. Chapter 3 deals with eczema, a spectrum of skin conditions causing dryness, itchiness, crusting, weeping and general discomfort.
Food allergy and intolerance, a complex and often misunderstood subject, is dealt with in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 looks at anaphylaxis, the life-threatening end of the allergy spectrum. In Chapter 6 we look at hay fever, a common but nonetheless distressing condition which blights summer and the examination season for a surprising number of young people.
Changes in our environment, from super-clean homes to an increase in the use of chemicals, are sometimes blamed for the rise in allergies. Chapter 7 has information about this controversial area In Chapter 8 we look at the various kinds of allergy tests currently on offer, ranging from the standard blood and skin prick tests used by hospital clinics to tests whose value has yet to be proved. In Chapter 9, allergy experts and the major national pressure groups say what they would like to happen in the fields of allergy treatment and research in the future. Finally, Chapter 10 contains the contact details of the many organizations, from national charities to companies producing allergy-friendly products, dedicated to making life easier for children with allergies and their families.
Body Systems
