My son has been diagnosed with a soy allergy. I’m not sure whether he is allergic or not.
What do we do?
The first thing anyone should do when they suspect a food allergy is to consult with an allergist.
Food allergy testing alone is not a good indicator of whether an individual has a food allergy. Recent reports have shown false positive results of up to 50% on such tests. Food allergies should be determined by your history of reaction to a food in addition to food allergy testing.
If you son has reacted to eating soy or foods with soy and his allergy tests are positive, he more than likely has a soy allergy.
If your son does not react upon eating soy, you might want to discuss a food challenge with your allergist.
Some soy allergic individuals are able to tolerate soy in small amounts. Soybean oil and soy lecithin typically do not have large amounts of soy protein and many soy allergic individuals are able to consume both.
Soy is a legume like the peanut. If your child has a confirmed peanut allergy and his soy test results are positive, it’s possible that he is not truly allergic to soy.
If you find that he does have a soy allergy, soy avoidance is the only way to prevent a reaction.
In the United States, soy is labeled as one of the top 8 allergens and should be listed on any packaged foods where soy is present. Read labels carefully. Soy is in everything. Many processed foods like breads, crackers and more do contain soy.
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