LiveWorld Transcripts

Gazoontite.com presents

Dr. Anthony Burgos
Coping with infant and child allergies

June 21, 2000

Dr. Anthony Burgos discusses infant and child allergies, including causes and the best way to detect and treat them.

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Gazoontite: Hello and welcome to gazoontite.com's chat with Pediatrician Anthony Burgos. Dr. Burgos is Medical Director of East Palo Alto Community Clinic and also Medical Director of the Packard Children's Hospital Health Van. He cares for patients at several San Francisco Bay Area hospitals and works as a medical consultant to technology companies. Please welcome Dr. Burgos.

Dr. Burgos: I'd like to welcome everyone to this afternoon's chat. With all the crazy weather we have been having this year I think that allergies is an appropriate topic. Specifically, allergies in infants are not usually addressed in the usual magazine articles and television programs that you might see, so I'd like to welcome everyone to the chatroom and I hope to have an interesting and fruitful discussion.

Esmeralda: Are there certain allergies that are more likely to affect infants rather than adults?

Dr. Burgos: It's an interesting question because most allergies are not manifested in infants until after six to twelve months of age. We have to remember that the mechanism of allergy requires a previous exposure to something that actually causes the allergic reaction. In general, if I were to answer the question, I would have to say that infants are more prone to allergies from food and skin contact.

Echo: Can you tell us the more predominant allergies found in infants and what type of treatments would be needed?

Dr. Burgos: The most common manifestation of allergies in infants is atopic dermatitis and in general, the treatment for atopic dermatitis is skin moisturizing lotion, occasionally topical steroid creams and in more severe cases oral antihistamines or antibiotics. The second most common manifestation of allergies in infants is asthma and again, the symptoms are usually not manifested until later, probably after 6 months of age. The appropriate therapy for symptoms of asthma usually includes albuterol inhalers and occasionally inhaled steroids or systemic steroids.

BusyMom: My husband and I both have terrible allergies (dust, mold, pollen, dander etc.). What can we do to reduce the chance that our new baby will also be allergic?

Dr. Burgos: With such a positive family history of environmental allergies, the chances are great that your child will also be prone to allergies. The most important thing that you can do to prevent allergies is to minimize the exposure to allergic antigens and there are two main ways for you to do this. First, you should minimize exposure to solid foods in the first six months of life. Children who have significant exposure to foods before four months have been shown to have increased incidence of food allergies as well as atopic dermatitis. Breast feeding during the first year can also minimize such allergies. The second thing that you can do is to minimize the exposure to environmental allergens around the house. And specific measures you can take to do this include covering pillows and mattresses and eliminating rugs and carpets whenever possible. You can also use air filters which you may have seen, called HEPA filters, to filter out some of the dust, pollen, and other airborne allergens that your child may be exposed to.

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