Management Food Associated Asthma in Children | Asthma Foods to Avoid

After long-term avoidance of the offending foods, many children outgrow their food allergies. Subsequent periodic challenge with asthma foods to avoid, the offending food should therefore be undertaken to determine whether your child remains allergic to it. The results of skin and blood tests tend to remain positive long after symptoms have resolved, so direct challenge with the offending food is usually necessary. Once a food ceases to cause problems, it should be eaten regularly to maintain tolerance.

An asthmatic child is likely to be sensitive to ingredients in manufactured foods which will tend to make their asthma worse. This type of food intolerance is not usually outgrown. It tends to persist into adulthood and to increase the response to an allergen as long as the asthma continues. Asthmatic children should not consume manufactured foods containing artificial colors and preservatives. Unfortunately, this includes most of the candies and other brightly colored and artificially flavored high-sugar foods and beverages that the average child sees as “treats”. The parents of asthmatic children need to put in place an alternative way of rewarding the child, so that the asthma is not perceived as a “punishment” of withholding pleasures in addition to the misery of the condition itself.

In dealing with my own asthmatic children, I developed a system of “bartering” in which the undesirable foods had relative values that could be exchanged for a desired object. In my son’s case this was a collection of miniature cars, Star Wars figurines, replica football team helmets, and so on, that he still treasures as an adult. This exchange system worked especially well for Halloween. With the exchange system, my son still had the pleasure of dressing up and “trick or treating” but had no desire to eat the chocolates and candies that he collected. They were valuable to him as a means of exchange for more treasured items.

The most frequently reported food additives that exacerbate asthma are artificial food dyes, especially tartrazine, and preservatives such as benzoates and sulfites. Interestingly, food coloring agents and benzoates are the additives that have been most often associated with hyperactivity in children.

It is a good idea to start with the food plan described previously, with the additional elimination of sulfites to determine whether your asthmatic child benefits from such dietary management strategies.