Child Food Allergy & Intolerance Support
We can help manage food allergies by educating families on allergen avoidance, ensuring balanced nutrition, and providing guidance on safe food choices to prevent allergic reactions.
A children’s dietitian plays a vital role in helping families manage food allergies and child food intolerance, including conditions such as cow’s milk protein allergy (CMPA). Working closely with parents, caregivers, and medical professionals, they ensure children can enjoy balanced, nutritious meals while avoiding allergens that could cause harmful reactions.
For a child with CMPA, the dietitian would start by reviewing their medical history, symptoms, and any relevant test results to confirm the diagnosis. From there, they create a personalised meal plan that excludes cow’s milk and its derivatives—such as cheese, yogurt, and butter—while still providing all the nutrients needed for healthy growth and development. This may involve recommending suitable alternatives like soya or oat milk, specialist hypoallergenic formulas, and ensuring that essential nutrients such as calcium, vitamin D, and protein are included from safe sources.
Beyond meal planning, the dietitian supports families by teaching them how to read food labels with confidence, spot hidden sources of cow’s milk in processed foods, and reduce the risk of cross-contamination. They also provide practical strategies for navigating everyday situations—from preparing allergen-free meals at home to helping children manage school lunches, birthday parties, and social events safely.
Ultimately, the dietitian’s role is to safeguard the child’s health while reducing the stress that often comes with managing allergies or child food intolerance. By giving families clear guidance, tailored support, and practical tools, they empower them to create a safe, nourishing, and positive food environment for their child.
How do we manage allergies?
-
If your child experiences digestive discomfort after eating—such as bloating, gas, cramps, diarrhea, or vomiting—it could signal a food intolerance. Because intolerances don’t involve the immune system, symptoms often appear gradually and depend on the amount consumed. Keeping a food and symptom diary helps spot patterns. At Beam Dietitians, we use this information plus your child’s medical history and elimination trials to determine whether intolerance is likely and guide safe dietary adjustments.
-
Common symptoms include abdominal pain, bloating, gas, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, or reflux. Sometimes milder signs like fatigue, headache, or skin changes may also occur. Because symptoms can be delayed or depend on the amount of food eaten, intolerance is tricky to trace. At Beam Dietitians, we help families monitor timing and severity of symptoms, then use an evidence-based elimination or reintroduction approach to pinpoint the culprit.
-
Dairy is among the most common food intolerances in children. Other common sensitivities include eggs, wheat, soya, certain food additives, fatty foods and FODMAPs (fermentable carbohydrates) which may trigger discomfort.
-
Food allergies arise when a child’s immune system misidentifies a food protein as harmful, triggering an inflammatory response. Intolerances, by contrast, usually stem from digestive limitations, reacting to certain food chemicals, or having sensitivity to additives. Genetic predisposition, early feeding exposures, gut health, and family history also influence risk. At Beam Dietitians, we work to understand each child’s unique risk factors and guide safe management.
-
Many conditions mimic intolerance symptoms. These include food allergies, gastrointestinal issues like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS); infections; functional digestive disorders; or even behavioral/psychological feeding challenges. At Beam Dietitians, we carefully differentiate between intolerances and other causes using your child’s history, symptom patterns, and, where needed, medical referrals.
-
Unlike allergies, intolerances don’t always show up on standard tests. Diagnosis often involves using a supervised elimination diet followed by gradual reintroduction of specific foods, while closely monitoring symptoms. At Beam Dietitians, we guide families through safe, evidence-based testing protocols, interpret results, and design nutrition plans that maintain balance while identifying problem foods.