It is expected that family gatherings will increase during the first Lunar New Year holiday without ‘social distancing’ following the Corona 19 incident. It’s nice to see a family member you haven’t seen in a long time and they recommend this or that food, but you need to be extra careful as an emergency situation can happen due to food allergy.
In the case of food on holiday, the ingredients used vary widely by region and household, so if you have food allergies, you need to check the ingredients before eating.
According to the medical community on the 20th, food allergy refers to an overreaction to proteins in food within a few minutes to several tens of minutes following eating a specific food. Various symptoms appear in various parts of the body, such as the respiratory, digestive, skin, and cardiovascular systems. There are mild symptoms such as redness, hives, itching, swelling, nasal congestion, sneezing, and mild cough, but also dizziness, sweating, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, wheezing, and laryngeal edema.
Most adults are aware of what food allergies they have, but children are often not. If your child has food allergies, you should inform them in advance so that family members you haven’t seen in a while don’t carelessly recommend the food.
If a child with food allergy develops symptoms of life-threatening anaphylaxis, such as difficulty breathing, pale face, choking throat, or loss of consciousness following eating food, call 911 for help immediately.
In an emergency, the child should be laid on a flat surface until 911 arrives. After that, it is good to release the clothes that are tightening the body, breathe together, and take as much stability as possible, and continuously observe the condition. Even if the symptoms temporarily improve, a secondary reaction may occur, so you must visit a medical institution.
Go Gyeong-wan, head of the regional emergency medical center at Daedong Hospital (emergency medicine specialist), said, “If you feed your child food containing milk, wheat flour, egg white, walnut, peanut, pine nut, buckwheat flour, shrimp, peach, kiwi, etc., you should check whether there is an allergic reaction. “Not only children, but also adults who are aware of their allergy-causing foods may be swept away by the holiday mood and eat recklessly, and then go to the emergency room with allergies, so special attention is needed,” he said.
Food poisoning, which is common during the holiday season, is a disease that is confused with similar symptoms of food allergy. Food poisoning is caused by bacteria or toxins in contaminated food. Symptoms are similar to vomiting and diarrhea, but it takes some time for symptoms to appear.
In addition, if children eat foods containing caffeine, they may become overexcited and restless. Eating acidic foods, such as tomatoes and orange juice, can cause skin rashes. The lactose in milk can cause digestive problems such as diarrhea, bloating, and abdominal pain.
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