POTENTIAL ROLE OF ACUTE URTICARIA IN CHILDREN OF YOUNGER SCHOOL WITH FOOD ALLERGY
A survey of parents of 378 first-grade pupils in Smolensk was conducted. Symptoms of food allergies were detected in 55 children (14.6%), of which 39 children (70.9%) showed symptoms of food allergies without episodes of acute urticaria; whereas 16 children (29.1%) had episodes of acute urticaria. Clinical manifestation of food allergy was more often observed in children under 3 months of age and older than 1 year of life. In most children with food allergies, acute urticaria first occurred before the age of 1 year, or from 3 to 5 years. Almost half of the children, had episodes of acute urticaria more than 5 times, while 1/4 of the children had only one episode. 33.3% of children with food allergies but withouturticaria were on artificial feeding, while children with attacks of urticariawere transferred to artificial feeding in 43.8% of cases. More full-term babies were born. Hereditary predisposition for atopy was detected in 3/4 of children in both groups.