The nurse is helping the parents of a toddler identify foods that are causing allergic symptoms in the child. Which strategy should the nurse encourage the parents to use?

Question

A) Elimination diet
B) Hyposensitivity testing
C) Corticosteroid challenge testing
D) Complete dietary protein restriction

Answer 1

A
Feedback:
An elimination diet is a traditional method to detect food allergens. Parents feed the child only foods that rarely cause allergy, such as rice, lamb, carrots, peas, and sweet potatoes, for about 7 days. Then they add, one by one, at 2- to 3-day intervals, foods that are suspected of causing allergy. When a food is introduced this way, the child must be encouraged to eat a lot of it that day. If symptoms occur, the food is then eliminated from the child's meals on a permanent basis. If no symptoms occur, the child can continue to eat the food. Hyposensitivity testing is unreliable with food allergies. Corticosteroids delay hypersensitivity reactions. It is difficulty to totally eliminate protein from the diet, and this is not a method to determine the cause of food allergies in the toddler.