Parents of Preschoolers  Discussion Forum

Name: Rachel

Additives in your child's food may lead to asthma
Sanchita Sharma
(New Delhi, February 23)
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Ketchup, orange-coloured drinks, instant noodles, chocolates etc. might be the staple diet of kids but doctors say additives in these are as much a reason for childhood asthma as environmental factors like dust and pollen.
Children have small airways and any intolerance to food additives used to enhance taste, provide colour or increase the shelf-life can trigger wheezing or an asthma attack, says Anupam Sibal, senior paediatrician, Apollo Hospital.

Food sensitivity affects 1-2 per cent adults and about 8 per cent children under the age of six, reports the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Common sources of allergy are artificial colours tartrazine and sunset yellow that give food its yellow and orange colour; flavour-enhancer monosodium glutamate that is added to instant noodles and chips; preservatives such as benzoates that are added to fruit juices, jams and sauces; and emulsifiers added to chocolate and ketchup that prevent the oil and water components from separating.

Some medicines are also known to aggravate asthma. "Sensitivity to painkillers such as aspirin and ibuprofen can also aggravate asthma and trigger attacks and that's why we advise people with asthma to take paracetamol as a painkiller," says J. N. Pande, senior consultant of medicine, Sita Ram Bhartia Institute, and former head of medicine at AIIMS.

Still, awareness of medicines as a trigger for asthma remains low even in the West.

This week's British Medical Journal reports that the prevalence of drug-induced asthma is 21 per cent in adult asthmatics and 5 per cent in children. Almost all of them were also allergic to commonly-used painkillers (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen, naproxen and diclofenac.

Rajesh Chawla, a respiratory medicine consultant at Apollo, recommends Clopidogrel as a more expensive but safe anti-coagulent for adults diagnosed with asthma. In adults, food and drug sensitivities can induce symptoms of asthma, depression, eczema, fatigue, migraine, indigestion, cramps or sinusitis.

Stay away from...

* Ketchup, tomato sauce

* Orange-coloured drinks (fruit juice tetrapacks, cold drinks, concentrates)

* Instant noodles, wafers, bhujia with monosodium glutamate (ajinomoto)

* Chocolates with emulsifiers

* Readymade jams and pickles

* Ibuprofen (brand names Brufen, Meftal)

* Aspirin (brand name Disprin, Colspin, Ecosprin)

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