When she suggested her son had a wheat allergy, Dr Jean Monro was taken to see a psychiatrist.

More than 30 years on, much of her career has been spent being stigmatised as eccentric.

Now she is one of the country's leading experts on food allergies, with her own specialist clinic, but says the subject is still taboo in medical science.

"A few years ago, I treated a little girl called Samantha," she said. "When she came to me she had to be carried everywhere.

"She would have epileptic fits sometimes five times a day and was being treated with this drug and that drug.

"We started to desensitise her to food; she has never had a fit since and is going from strength to strength. She now trains wild horses.

"This is just an example of how somebody can be completely wrecked by a profession which has been suborned by the drug companies.

"It is not a failure of my profession, it is just the way people are being trained."

A medical director at the private Breakspear Hospital for allergy and environmental medicine in Hemel Hempstead, Dr Monro is a firm believer in food desensitisation.

Originating in the United States, it involves finding the right level of the problem food which will act like a vaccine to block an allergic reaction.

The Breakspear also does a variety of tests to find out how enzymes, organic acids and toxic elements work in the body and can be tested with a simple breath test.

Aside from the more common allergic rashes normally associated with foods, Dr Monro believes they may actually be behind more serious conditions.

She said: "I am absolutely convinced that the majority of migraines are due to food and also chemicals like perfumes.

"Autism has risen 300-fold in recent years and there are a lot of foods which are linked to it.

"We have found that a lot of autism sufferers have a major defection in sulphation, which means the mucin in the stomach lining is deficient."

Dr Monro believes many allergies are caused by alterations in our diet towards more processed food and products genetically engineered for a longer shelf life.

"The number of allergies is on the increase because we are ultimately going against nature.

"If you are with nature you survive, if you are against nature you perish. If we don't have immunity we have to live in a bubble."

If you would like to find out more information on Breakspear Hospital's allergy programmes, please telephone 01442 261333.

Case studies

When Sofia-Ohezene Theophilou's son Georgios was born, she knew something was wrong.

Jaundiced and suffering a reaction to milk, hospital staff ruled out any link to allergies, a stance which continued until he was seven.

"He stopped breathing when he was given baby food and was then taken into hospital," said Sofia. "The doctor said it was temper tantrums and while he was sitting on the doctor's knee he was going blue."

Transferred from doctor to child psychiatrist, Sofia was at her wits' end. She suspected Georgios was suffering from allergies, as there was a family history of similar complaints but no-one would listen.

So much so, her son became the subject of lengthy court battles with two local authorities who claimed his condition was psychological rather than clinical.

After being transferred to the care of Dr Monro, Georgios was finally diagnosed as being allergic to meat, cucumber, fruit and milk. And after treatment, he has been able to start eating some of those foods. "He can eat meat, vegetables and fish.

Sofia added: "Since he has had the vaccines, he has been able to lead a more normal life. If my son does not get the vaccine he is like Jekyll and Hyde."

Summer is a time some people dread. Nausea, puffy eyes and runny noses are the signal that the hay fever season is back.

Sufferer Christopher Pickard battled through this to take an unusual route to overcoming his allergy.

Christopher visited a chiropractor and after six sessions, he hasn't had a reaction in years.

He said: "I had hay fever quite badly but I visited a chiropractor. He explained there were some nerves in the back of my neck which were being irritated by the vertebrae being out of line. This affected the mucus membranes so he twisted my neck and spine and I've had no problems since."

Christopher has since become a chiropractor himself, practising at Cat Hill Chiropractic Clinic, Cat Hill, East Barnet.

Children are playful at the best of times. But when your child starts to become aggressive at the age of two, alarm bells ring.

Jane Seebald, of Helena Close, Hadley Wood, had that problem. She said: "When Daniel was about two, he suddenly became very aggressive and would snatch toys away from children at nursery and ram them up against the wall.

"He was like that for about six months and I remembered reading a report about milk, so I took him off cow's milk and replaced it with soya. A few days later he was back to his normal self.

The schoolteachers think I'm barmy when I say he can't eat this and that."

Jane also noticed behavioural changes when Daniel ate other foods. He reacted to sausages and various colourings. Her younger son Ben, 14 months, also developed allergies and is prone to asthma and eczema.

She said: "He has had eczema since he was three months old and when he was four months old he was totally covered and couldn't sleep.

"I took him to the GP and said I thought he had a milk intolerance but the GP wasn't convinced," said Jane.

"I think GPs are quite ignorant about food allergies, as it's not their forte. "If a child starts showing signs of eczema or even behavioural problems which seem abnormal, definitely look at food."