Protein Sensitivity in Children With Negative Cutaneous Reactions

The percentage of positive protein cutaneous tests in the eczema of infants and younger children has been variously estimated as between 40 and 65 per cent, of the cases.¹The presumption has been that the remaining negative cases were not due to protein sensitivity. There are, however, a not insignificant number of the remaining cases negative to all proteins used which can clinically be demonstrated to have a protein as the underlying causative factor. Schloss mentions this phenomenon. He reports cases in which there is shown clinically a definite food idiosyncrasy in spite of negative cutaneous protein tests. He states that the ingestion of certain foods, very often cow's milk, results in a gastro-intestinal upset. The type of case I will discuss differs from Schloss' cases in that the reaction to the ingestion of the offending protein is cutaneous, in the form of eczema, rather than gastro-intestinal, as in