Allergic infants: growth and implications while on exclusion diets.
The complex nature of allergic disease exposes infants to an increased risk of nutritional inadequacies. Allergic inflammation requiring extensive dietary regimens may underlie the poor growth frequently reported. Nutritional management is directed towards the prevention of explicitly diet-related deficiencies, the mainstay of treatment of food allergy being strict avoidance of offending antigens in the diet. The advantage of elimination diets lies in silencing the specific allergic inflammation induced by the food responsible, the effect thus being antigen-specific. Concomitantly, food may also contain immunomodulatory factors, and indeed research into the management of allergic disease is evolving from passive allergen avoidance to the invention of novel dietary compounds with specific effects in alleviating the immunoinflammatory reaction and stabilizing the gut mucosal barrier. Active schemes include supplementation of nutrients, particularly fatty acids and antioxidant vitamins, and probiotics with properties influencing immunoregulatory pathways. However, the conceivable joint effects of a range of nutrients and other potentially active components in the subject's habitual diet cannot be ruled out. Prior to implementation of these concepts in management regimes or products for infants, further exploration of their effects and mechanisms, including both short- and long-term safety evaluation, is called for.
Department of Biochemistry and Food Chemistry, Functional Foods Forum, University of Turku, Department of Pediatrics, Turku, Finland.
Kirsi
K
Laitinen
Erika
E
Isolauri
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006128:Growth; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena / Q000276:immunology*; D007422:Intestines / Q000502:physiology*