[Children who are allergic to cow's milk. Nutritional treatment]

An allergy or intolerance to cow's milk protein (APLV-IPLV) is the most frequent food allergy among early childhood in our environment, related to genetic and environmental factors. This allergy tends to appear during the first few months of life, after the introduction of cow's milk protein in a child's diet and it manifests itself with symptoms which depend on foreign matter being introduced (immunological or otherwise). A diagnosis is made by means of the patient's case history and is completed by laboratory tests. Treatment consists of excluding cow's milk protein from the child's diet. Formulas derived from cow's milk are substituted by a hydrolyzed formula or one based on soybean. The prognosis is good: patients respond to this diet which does not include cow's milk protein and the majority of patients succeed in forming tolerance for cow's milk protein. A nurse's role is fundamental in educating parents and later on the child in order to achieve following a diet which completely eliminates cow's milk protein (PLV).