[Food urticaria in children. Review of 51 cases]

Food origin seems to have a special place in the etiology of infantile urticaria, as it forms 62% of a series of 51 observations of urticaria in children, greater than drug etiology (22%), physical urticaria (8%) and contact urticaria (8%). Distinction between true and false food allergy, which is important for prognosis and evolution, puts true food allergy (55%) in the lead before false (7%). A reason for this, the atopic concept, was seen in 67% of the food urticarias, corresponding apparently to true food allergy. If in the majority of these cases the pathway of sensitizations was unknown, in very rare observations the sensitization pathway was reported as an inhalation or even a sensitization in utero. Finally, infantile urticaria, more serious because of the vital risks that may be associated with it, deserves a special comment from the etiological viewpoint: observation of urticaria (and shock) to peach in an infant of 4 months, to wheat flour at 5 months and egg at 6 months are a demonstration that between 4 and 6 months intolerance of cows milk proteins is not the only etiology of infantile urticaria. For prognosis, early detection of true food allergy in children gives hope of better results than in adults, with higher chances of regression of the sensitization.