Child vomiting after rice, oats or chicken?

The little-known food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome could be more common than we think, say researchers
Clare Pain

Babies and toddlers presenting with profuse vomiting shortly after consuming rice, oats, chicken, cows’ milk or eggs may have a little-known condition called food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome (FPIES).

Clinicians should consider the diagnosis when a child aged under two vomits 1-4 hours after ingesting a suspect food, despite having no IgE-mediated allergic skin or respiratory responses, according to a review in the Medical Journal of Australia.

The condition, first reported in the 1970s, only received an ICD-10 classification code in 2015, with international consensus guidelines written by a committee of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in 2017.

Its prevalence is unknown, with estimates varying from 15 per 100,000 to 3 per 1000 infants a year, write paediatric allergist Dr Sam Mehr of the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, and Professor Dianne Campbell from the Children’s Hospital at Westmead and the University of Sydney.