BALTIMORE, MD – When your child is first diagnosed with allergies, most doctors will offer the hopeful remark: “Some kids grow out of allergies.” Well, current research indicates that allergies that used to be “transitional”, such as milk and egg, are becoming harder to get rid of.

A study out of Johns Hopkins Children’s Center has followed more than 800 patients with milk allergy and another almost 900 with egg allergy over a span of 13 years. Contrary to popular belief, most patients with these allergies continued to struggle with them into the school years and beyond.

Lead investigator, Robert Wood MD, said, “Not only do more kids have allergies, but fewer of them outgrow their allergies.”

Researchers advised that the findings could be biased, since the more severe allergic cases end up at Hopkins. However, there does seem to be a trend to more severe and persistent allergies overall.

This study also supports what pediatricians have been saying: more recent diagnoses of allergies seem to be more unpredictable as well as more aggressive. The reasons behind this trend remain unclear. Wood commented, saying “We may be dealing with a different kind of disease process than we did 20 years ago.”

Earlier research into childhood allergy suggested that up to 75 per cent of kids with milk allergy would outgrow it before kindergarten. The Johns Hopkins study showed that a mere 20 per cent of children now outgrow their milk allergy by age 4, with just over 40 per cent outgrowing it by age 8. The good news is that nearly 4 out of 5 kids will be milk allergy free by 16.

Egg allergy behaves similarly, but percentages were much lower. A mere 4 per cent outgrew their allergy by age 4, with 37 per cent allergy free by age 10. Only 68 per cent were clear of egg allergy by 16.

The good news for parents is that children continued to lose their allergies throughout adolescence; so, it is worth it to continue to test your child to see if the allergy is persisting.

Source: Science Daily News