Understanding Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy in primary care

In recent years, there has been a significant rise in the number of adults and children suffering food allergies. An allergy can be defined as an adverse health effect arising from a specific immune response on exposure to a given food.¹ Cow’s milk protein allergy (CMPA) is specific to the abnormal response to proteins found in cow’s milk or milk substitute products containing the proteins.²

Identification of CMPA can be difficult and is often over-estimated due to possible misinterpretations of presumed reactions to milk. Typical symptoms of CMPA can be both vague as well as being common in children who do not have allergy; including commonly presented symptoms such as skin rashes, reflux, colic and diarrhoea.¹