Its success, however, depends on rigid control of the diet during the elimination and reintroduction phases. Problems commonly arise when the child is visiting with friends or when at school where the youngster may be able to obtain unauthorized foods. Another approach to identifying problem foods is blood testing. There are several types performed by physicians. Finally, there are skin tests, commonly done by physicians whose practices include treatment of allergy.
Treatment depends on the severity of the food allergy.
In milder cases, the elimination of several of the major offending foods from the diet, once they have been identified, may be sufficient to relieve symptoms. More serious cases may require further measures. In addition to removing the worst of the problem foods from the diet, a four-day rotation diet may be beneficial, where a given food is not eaten more than one out of four days. In the field of environmental medicine, sublingual food neutralization drops may go far in relieving symptoms. Neutralization doses are determined by skin tests using the technique of serial dilution titration, in which differing dilutions of a given food extract are injected into the skin to find which dilution first gives a skin reaction.