article:milk, egg allergies harder to outgrow: study says

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Milk, egg allergies harder to outgrow: study

By Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Childhood allergies to milk and eggs appear to

be harder to outgrow than in the past, U.S. researchers said on

Wednesday.

While they were often outgrown by age 3 two decades ago, such

allergies often persist into late childhood, researchers at s

Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore, land, report in two

studies in the Journal of Clinical Immunology.

" The bad news is that the prognosis for a child with a milk or egg

allergy appears to be worse than it was 20 years ago, " Dr.

Wood, health of allergy and immunology, said in a statement.

" Not only do more kids have allergies, but fewer of them outgrow

their allergies, and those who do, do so later than before. "

Wood and colleagues examined medical records of more than 800

children with milk allergies and nearly 900 with egg allergies over

a 13-year period.

Among children in the study with milk allergies, they found that by

age 4, less than 20 percent of them had become able to tolerate

milk, and by age 8, only 42 percent had outgrown the allergy.

That compared with prior studies, which suggested 75 percent of

children would overcome their milk allergies by age 3.

The researchers found a similar trend with egg allergies. Just 4

percent outgrew this allergy by age 4, and just 37 percent outgrew

it by age 10.

Many of these children eventually did outgrow their allergies,

however, with 79 percent of the milk allergy group and 68 percent of

the egg allergy group outgrowing their allergies by age 16.

And the studies found that some children were able to lose their

allergies during adolescence, suggesting that pediatricians should

keep testing older children.

The researchers said their findings may reflect the fact that they

tend to see kids with more severe allergies. They also believe food

allergies today are more aggressive but they do not know why.

" Our impression is that the disease is behaving differently than it

did before, " Wood said in a telephone interview.

Milk allergy is the most common childhood allergy, affecting 2

percent to 3 percent of young children. Egg allergy is the second

most common, affecting 1 percent to 2 percent of young children, the

researchers said.

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