Primary Care Perspectives: FPIES: A Complex Allergy with Serious Health Effects in Babies - Episode 115

Summary: Food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome, or FPIES, is a rare and different food allergy – non IgE-mediated, perhaps driven by T cells. About 20% of babies with acute FPIES present in shock to the CHOP ER. There isn’t a diagnostic test for FPIES. Amy Dean, MPH, RD, CSP, LDN, clinical dietitian, Gayle Diamond, MD, attending gastroenterologist, Terri Brown-Whitehorn, MD, attending allergist, who all work together in the FPIES Clinic at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, provide a review. Their discussion includes: symptoms and how FPIES may present in the primary care setting; tips for getting a useful history for diagnosis; how FPIES is different from other food allergies; which foods are the most common causes; what is acute FPIES; respecting parent fear of FPIES reactions, which can be upsetting; tips on diet modification; why a multidisciplinary approach, including allergy and GI, is important; an overview of how CHOP manages FPIES; biomarker research that may lead to a diagnostic test; and more.