In recent years children's self-reported food allergies have been on the incline, but in black children they may be doubling.
"Our research found a striking food allergy trend that needs to be further evaluated to discover the cause," Corinne Keet, MD, MS, lead study author and assistant professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University, said in an American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) news release. "Although African Americans generally have higher levels of IgE, the antibody the immune system creates more of when one has an allergy, it is only recently that they have reported food allergy more frequently than white children. Whether the observed increase is due to better recognition of food allergy or is related to environmental changes remains an open question."
Researchers looked at reports from 452,237 children that spanned from the years 1988 to 2011. They found food allergies had increased by a rate of 2.1 percent per decade in black children, 1.2 percent in Hispanics, and one percent among whites.
"It is important to note this increase was in self-reported allergy,". Keet. "Many of these children did not receive a proper food allergy diagnosis from an allergist. Other conditions such as food intolerance can often be mistaken for an allergy, because not all symptoms associated with foods are caused by food allergy."
Another paper released today outlined how allergists can often determine whether a child will or will not grow out of their allergy.
"Those allergic to milk, egg, soy, and wheat are more likely to tolerate these allergens over time, than those allergic to peanuts and tree nuts," allergist Wesley Burks, MD, lead study author and ACAAI fellow, said in the news release. "No single test alone can predict eventual food tolerance, but when patients are under the regular care of a board-certified allergist they can be re-evaluated and tested in different ways."
