The present paper aims to provide experts' consensus on diagnosis and management of cow's milk protein allergy (CMPA) among infants and children in Turkey, based on review of available evidence-based guidelines, publications and experts' clinical experience. The experts agreed that CMPA diagnosis should be based on symptomatic evaluation and diagnostic elimination diet as followed by implementation of an open challenge test after disappearance of symptoms and confirmation of CMPA diagnosis in re-appearance of symptoms. For breastfed infants, differential diagnosis involves withdrawal of cow's milk-containing products from the mother's diet, while calcium supplements and appropriate dietary advice are given to mothers to prevent nutritional deficiency. For infants not breastfed exclusively, cow's milk-based formula and any complementary food containing cow's milk protein (CMP) should be avoided. The first line treatment should be extensively hydrolyzed formula (eHF) with use of amino acid-based formula (AAF) in severe cases such as anaphylaxis, enteropathy, eosinophilic esophagitis and food protein induced enterocolitis along with cases of multiple system involvement, multiple food allergies and intolerance to eHF. Introduction of supplementary foods should not be delayed in CMPA, while should be made one by one in small amounts and only after the infant is at least 17 weeks of age. Infants who are at-risk can be identified by family history of atopic disease. Exclusive breastfeeding for 4-6 months (17-27 weeks) is recommended as the best method of infant allergy prevention. There is no evidence that modifying the mother's diet during pregnancy and/or breast-feeding and delaying solid or even potentially allergic foods beyond 4-6 months in infants may be protective against allergy among at-risk infants. When exclusive breastfeeding is not possible, at-risk infants should get a partially or extensively hydrolyzed formula (pHF or eHF) to prevent allergy until risk evaluation by a health professional. In conclusion, the present consensus statement provides recommendations regarding diagnosis, prevention and management of CMPA in infants and children in Turkey, and thus expected to guide physicians to optimize their approach to CMPA and decrease burden of the disease on infants and their caregivers.

Region-specific recommendations for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cow's milk protein allergy (CMPA) are not available in Turkey. This crosssectional questionnaire-survey was designed to evaluate CMPA awareness and practice among Turkish pediatricians. A total of 410 pediatricians were included based on their voluntary participation. Questionnaires elicited demographic data and pediatricians' awareness and practice of CMPA in infants and children. Atopic dermatitis (91.5%), diarrhea (88.0%) and significant blood in stool (85.9%) were the most common symptoms considered suggestive of CMPA. Continuation of breast feeding via elimination of CMP containing products from maternal diet was the most commonly selected (79.0%) therapeutic option in exclusively breast-fed infants diagnosed with CMPA. Amino acid-based formula was the most commonly selected formula in a non-exclusively breast-fed infant with CMPA, for infants presenting with anaphylaxis (58.8%), enterocolitis (40.7%) or multiple food allergies (52.0%), and also for at-risk infants (40.2%). Earliest time to re-challenge was identified to be 6 months by 52.0% of pediatricians. In conclusion, our findings revealed high awareness of CMPA among Turkish pediatricians in terms of clinical presentation and first priority diagnostic tests. However, CMPA practice among Turkish pediatricians needs to be improved in terms of avoidance of other mammalian milks, selection of therapeutic formulas among non-exclusively breast-fed infants and at-risk infants consistent with guideline-based indications and cost-effectivity.

We aimed to assess the frequency of celiac disease (CD) in patients with Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF). This prospective study was carried out from October 2015 to March 2016 and included 303 patients with FMF. We used 98 sex- and age-matched healthy subjects as a control group. Levels of total IgA and tissue transglutaminase (tTG) IgA antibody were measured in all groups. Those with increased level of tTG IgA were tested for anti-endomysium IgA antibodies (EMA). Patients with positive EMA underwent gastro-duodenoscopy and intestinal biopsy for a definite diagnosis of CD. Only 9 of 303 patients (2.9%) were positive for tTG IgA. Patients positive for tTG IgA were then tested for EMA and only one of them (0.3%) had a positive result. This patient underwent gastro-duodenoscopy. The pathological report was compatible with Marsh 0 classification score for the diagnosis of CD. Two subjects from the control group were positive for tTG IgA but none of them had positive EMA antibodies. We did not find CD in the large cohort of childhood FMF patients. The prevalence of CD did not show association with presence of childhood FMF in this study and CD would not be a considerable complication of childhood FMF.

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