Efficacy of Dairy Free Diet and 6-Food Elimination Diet as Initial Therapy for Pediatric Eosinophilic Esophagitis: A Retrospective Single-Center Study

Purpose: Management of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) varies from center to center. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a dairy-free diet (DFD) and the 6-Food Elimination Diet (SFED) as initial therapies for the treatment of EoE in our practice. Methods: This was a retrospective study of children who had been treated for EoE at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, Hartford, CT, USA. Pre- and post-treatment endoscopy findings and histology results of patients treated with DFD or SFED were examined. Results: One hundred fifty-two patients (age 9.2±5.2 years, 76.3% male, 69.7% caucasian) met the inclusion criteria for initial treatment with DFD (n=102) or SFED (n=50). Response for DFD was 56.9% and for SFED was 52.0%. Response based on treatment duration (12 weeks) were 81.8%, 50.0%, and 55.1% for DFD, and 68.8%, 50.0%, and 40.0% for SFED. Response based on age (12 years) were 59.3%, 42.9%, and 67.5% for DFD, and 36.4%, 58.8%, and 72.7% for SFED. In patients treated with DFD, concomitant proton pump inhibitor (PPI) administration resulted in improved outcomes (p=0.0177). Bivariate regression analysis showed that PPI with diet is the only predictor of response (p=0.0491), however, there were no significant predictors on multiple regression analysis. Conclusion: DFD and SFED are effective first line therapies for EoE. DFD should be tried first before extensive elimination diets. Concomitant therapy with PPI's may be helpful.