Clinical Management of Childhood Food Allergy

There is an upsurge in demand of clinical service in the management of childhood food allergy in almost every developed place. Certainly, Hong Kong is of no immunity. Is food allergy a growing problem or is it just a diagnostic fashion? I believe that we are looking at a combination of 1) increased rates of sensitisation 2) increased likelihood of sensitisation progressing to disease 3)increased recognition of food allergy 4) increased use of medical services or a change of health seeking behaviour. Food allergy is a huge subject. There are vast diversities in pathogenesis, clinical presentations, cultural and racial variations and many unresolved controversies. In this review, I will try to focus only on some of the core knowledge that we would apply in our daily clinical care.