Cow's milk allergy in infants

Strictly speaking, allergy to cow's milk should only be diagnosed ii reproducible abnormal reactions are observed and are confirmed by specific reactions in immunological tests. In practice, diagnosis is usually based on reactions following the consumption of cow's milk with or without immunological confirmation. If would be logical to describe cases with immunological confirmation as allergy and those without as intolerance to cow's milk. However, the possibility of cow's milk intolerance progressing to become an allergy blurs this distinction. As for many other childhood allergies, the number of cases of cow's milk allergy diagnosed is clearly increasing. Before 1950, cow's milk:allergy was considered to be very rare. In developed regions, cow's milk allergy is now suspected to affect at least 10% of infants, and has been confirmed in more than 5% of children. An estimated 0.4-0.5% of cases occur in children who were entirely breastfed before weaning. We began by studying replacement foods, providing efficient supplementation on the elimination of cow's milk from the diet. We are currently studying the mechanisms of cow's milk allergy, which often begins when the child is very young, possibly even during the gestation period in some cases. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.