Or if you have a severe reaction to only a small amount of the

“Or if you have a severe reaction to only a small amount of the allergen, you should also keep an EpiPen with you at all times.” And, preferably, two EpiPens – in case of one not working, and also because the reactions can be “bi-phasic”, with a second wave occurring after the first has subsided.Prevention of an attack in the first place is preferable, easier during the days of home-cooking than it is today with ready-meals and take-aways. “If a person has a food allergy and also suffers from asthma, which affects breathing, they should definitely carry an EpiPen,” advises Dr Lack. The EpiPen (or Anapen – same drug, different mechanism) is an auto- injector of a life-saving shot of adrenalin, which shocks the body back into normal working. “The most frightening thing is its unpredictability,” says Dominic.Asthma is a key risk factor for someone who has a food allergy: the reaction to the food may in turn trigger an asthma attack, so turning a mild reaction into the severe. But, the scientists stress, “at the moment there are only hypotheses and not established facts.”While mild allergic reactions usually affect just one part of the body – the skin (eczema, or some sort of rash and itching), the gut (vomiting), tissue (swelling), or the lungs (asthma) – “the reaction becomes more dangerous when more than one organ is involved,” says Dr Lack, and especially if it is the lungs or the heart.So, the anaphylactic’s mix of symptoms may include any or all of the above, as well as, possibly, a metallic taste in the mouth, swelling of the throat and tongue, difficulty in breathing and swallowing, increased heart rate and a sudden feeling of floppiness (due to a drop in blood pressure) – to the point of collapse and unconsciousness.

“Perhaps,” explains Professor Warner, “a baby is introduced to a new food at a time when its gut is inflamed – say, after a bout of gastroenteritis, and a protein is thus able to cross through the protective gut wall.”Other research by Dr Gideon Lack, consultant in paediatric allergy and immunology at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, indicates that peanut oil contained in skin creams prescribed for the treatment of eczema may have been the “route of sensitisation” for many people allergic to peanuts. The troublesome protein in milk is usually casein, but there are others. “It seems,” says Professor Warner, “that the more proteins and components of the proteins of a given food to which an individual reacts, the greater the probability of a severe reaction.”This may be partly a consequence of the individual’s genetic make-up and partly to do with how an individual first encountered the protein and became sensitive to it. It counter-attacks by producing antibodies: the blood supply to the area increases, as well as other white blood cells and components of the immune system. The report cites estimates that a third of the total UK population – approximately 18 million people – will develop an allergy at some time in their lives. Yet only 10 years ago, this was a rare disorder.But what makes some allergic reactions so severe? “This is what vast numbers of people are frantically trying to investigate,” says John Warner, professor of child health at Southampton University, who specialises in allergic disorders.Allergic reactions are the work of the immune system, which goes into overdrive to repel substances (proteins, except in the case of antibiotics) it wrongly perceives as a threat to the body. Extreme allergic reactions – anaphylaxis – are increasing, too: hospital admissions due to anaphylaxis have increased sevenfold over the past decade and doubled over four years.

Peanut allergy has trebled in incidence over four years and now affects one in 70 children in the UK. Cow’s milk allergy is common in infants and is in most cases mild, with 85-90 per cent outgrowing their allergy by age three. When it continues into adulthood, however, symptoms tend to be severe. Only time will tell into which group Sofia will fall.Statistics on allergy generally are alarming. According to last summer’s report from the Royal College of Physicians, Allergy the Unmet Need, the incidence of allergy in the UK has risen approximately threefold in the past 20 years, giving the UK one of the highest rates of allergic disease in the world. Other foods provoking an attack are tree nuts, seafood, egg – and, as in Sofia’s case, milk products. That is, they are both at the most extreme end of the allergy spectrum where an allergic reaction can kill.Peanuts are the most common food cause of anaphylaxis, but insect stings, drugs and latex can also cause a similar reaction.