Dietary Choice for the Management of Cow's Milk Allergy Influences Other Allergic Manifestations

Food allergy is a common chronic condition in childhood. Recent studies have suggested that the natural history of food allergy has changed during the last two decades, with an increased prevalence, severity of clinical manifestations, and risk of persistence into later ages. The increased food allergy prevalence in children has an important economic impact, with significant direct costs for the healthcare system and even larger costs for the families of food-allergic patients. In addition, children with food allergies are at increased risk to develop other allergic manifestations later in life. According to a recent study, children with a food allergy are 2 to 4 times more likely to develop other atopic manifestations such as asthma (4.0 times), atopic eczema (2.4 times), and respiratory allergies (3.6 times), compared to children without a food allergy. Cow's milk allergy is among the most common food allergy in early childhood, with an estimated prevalence of 2% to 3%. It has been previously showed that in children with cow milk allergy, an extensively hydrolysed casein formula supplemented with the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG induced higher tolerance rates compared to extensively hydrolysed casein formula without Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG and other formulas. These findings were consistent with those of a 1-year follow-up study performed in the US that showed better outcomes using an extensively hydrolysed casein formula+Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG vs. an extensively hydrolysed casein formula or amino acid-based formula for the first-line dietary management of cow milk allergy. In addition it has been recently demonstrated that extensively hydrolysed casein formula + Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG reduces the incidence of other atopic manifestations and hastens the development of oral tolerance in children with IgE-mediated cow milk allergy.

The present randomized controlled trial (RCT) was designed to test whether different dietary interventions could influence the occurrence of other atopic manifestations in children with IgE-mediated cow milk allergy.