S/O: Are food allergies more prevalent today?

[queenmama]

I never knew that so many families dealt with food allergies until I started coming here regularly. I am feeling indescribably thankful that (A) DS doesn't have food allergies or sensitivities and (B) nor have any of his classmates in nine years.

I can't imagine how you FA parents deal. Worrying every second -- namely when your kids are out of your sight -- that they might eat or come into contact with something that could harm them, or worse.

Having said all of that, I wonder whether FA are more common nowadays? When I was a kid I knew a few people who were allergic to eggs or strawberries or nuts or dairy, but this was just a handful or two of kids.

So are FA more prevalent today, for some reason? Or have they been misdiagnosed (or undiagnosed) in years past?

Are there recommendations to prevent FA or is it something you're born with? As I said, DS has no issues with this, but reading all of the FA posts here have made me paranoid about feeding DD, and frankly, kind of glad she still isn't interested in solids!

Lara

[maestramommy]

To ME it seems like there are way more than when I was a kid. But I don't know if that is just anecdotal or if it's a documented fact. Certainly when I was a kid there were no foods not allowed in class.

[scrooks]

To ME it seems like there are way more than when I was a kid. But I don't know if that is just anecdotal or if it's a documented fact. Certainly when I was a kid there were no foods not allowed in class.

I agree with this. It seems so much more common. I don't remember any one with food allergies growing up. I really feel for FA parents. I can't imagine worrying all the time that a certain food could kill your child.

[brittone2]

I think they are more common. I've seen all kinds of speculation about causes ranging from the hygiene hypothesis to what flora a child's intestinal track is colonized with (which can also be related to things like the higher c/s rates today). I'm sure the food allergy parents can speak to more on the research.

[o_mom]

I think it is a combination of things, including increased incidence. However, I think that some of it is increased awareness. In the past there was also much less known about the progression of allergic reactions - that someone could go from just hives to anaphylaxis on the next contact - and so there was less worry about that. Now, most are treated as if they could become anaphylactic at any time. Also, epi-pens were not around until 1980 or later, so even if it was suspected someone could be anaphylactic, they wouldn't have anything special but to avoid the allergen. The better testing we have now, RAST for example, can identify someone who has never had a reaction. In the past they may have gone years without knowing if they didn't have a severe reaction, where now they are told to avoid it all. This is all speculation on my part, but I can see how many of these could push allergies from undiagnosed/unknown to known.

And, of course, the internet makes the world seem smaller.

[AnnieW625]

Besides my mom not being able to stomach a glass of milk (cooked milk, cheese, cottage cheese, and ice cream every so often are okay) for as long as I can remember (we brought her cheerios with milk in bed one day, I was probably 6-8 yrs. old) no one in my immediate family has any allergies. My cousin has a walnut allergy, other than that nada. I never had any friends with allergies either. I didn't like peanut butter until jr. high and I used to joke in elementary school that I was allergic to peanuts when people asked me why I just brought a jelly sandwich. I had a teacher who was allergic to chocolate my senior year of high school. Other than that never heard of many food issues other than maybe seafood. We are about the same age I think. I was born in 1977.

In DD1's class there have been no students with a food allergies at all which really suprises me because it is in a middle to upper income area and no flames but that seems to be the demographic of people who have food allergies. Last year there was a boy in one of the other k-3 grades who had a peanut allergy and he went to after care, but again I was really surprised there weren't more. So far I have known through my mom group, one child with a strawberry allergy, and the other kid with a peanut allergy. Both families have never had any allergy issues, and their other kids don't have any allergies. DH's cousin kid though is allergic to soy, wheat, peanuts, and dairy. DH's cousin has no allergies, and neither does his wife. They are Mexican, and Chinese. One dad in my Stroller Stride's Group has a peanut allergy and he is in his late 30s. His kids have never had peanuts. None of the kids in DD2's daycare have nut allergies, although one has some sort of dairy allergy so he drinks goat milk, and my DD2 drinks Lactaid or soy milk because her poop is nasty when she drinks cows milk.

Both DH and I are believers that a lot of the new found allergies are due to people withholding especially when there isn't a family history of allergies. We tested both DDs with peanut butter at about 9 months old. I think I did eggs with DD1 at a year old and she never took the texture, and I noticed that her cheeks got a little flush when eating scrambled eggs. Tried eggs again at 2/1/2 and she didn't have that reaction, but then she didn't like the texture. By 18 mos. old DD1 was eating every type of nut possible, which was awesome because she didn't like meat much until she was 4. I tested DD2 with eggs at about 12 mos., and for some reason did the rest of the tree nuts at 14-16 months old.

If I were you I would start testing Agnes as soon as she starts eating regular food. I would rather have it be done at home as well vs. being out somewhere or at a party and then having shock.

[Blakes Mommy]

Probably my thread started this thread! I don't remember the allergies this much when I was little but, hey I am an old mom...47...so born in 1965!

I may have known a couple people that had allergies like one nuts, one lactose intolerant but that was about it! When I was little everyone brought peanut butter and jelly to school.

Besides DS1 red dye sensitivity which I don't count as a "food" allergy since it is an artificial ingredient. My kids don't seem to have any that I know of except they both didn't do well with beef baby food though and did get diaper rashes sometimes from it.

I was reading a earlier post about kids flora and increased c sections. Both my kids were c section since I had an emergency one with the first they had a scheduled one for the second one... but, they don't seem to have any real allergies.

[MSWR0319]

Yes, FAs are more prevalent and they don't know why exactly. Our pediatric allergist is the head of a Food Allergy Clinic at a top University and they are trying to figure out what's causing them. Theres a lot of thought that "cleanliness" of our surroundings has caused some of the problems, but again not much confirmation. Peanut allergies have significantly increased.

There is no significant proof one way or the other yet that delayed withholding is causing allergies. My 9 month old reacted to eggs at 3 months through my milk. He has tested positive. So in that case I didn't delay at all. DS has a severe peanut allergy and has never even had a peanut in his mouth. He reacted with full body hives after DH picked him up out of his high chair after eating PB toast. My husband nor I have food allergies, but we do have season allergies.

ETA: I was cross posting with above. Food allergies are actually fairly common in other countries as well. Here's a quick article I googled http://www.foodsmatter.com/allergy_i...rgy_india.html but I've read many other stories as well. Our allergist said that Canada is so far ahead of the US as far as labeling,etc goes and gave us literature from Canada because he feels they do it better.

[Blakes Mommy]

Yes, FAs are more prevalent and they don't know why exactly. Our pediatric allergist is the head of a Food Allergy Clinic at a top University and they are trying to figure out what's causing them. Theres a lot of thought that "cleanliness" of our surroundings has caused some of the problems, but again not much confirmation. Peanut allergies have significantly increased.

There is no significant proof one way or the other yet that delayed withholding is causing allergies. My 9 month old reacted to eggs at 3 months through my milk. He has tested positive. So in that case I didn't delay at all. DS has a severe peanut allergy and has never even had a peanut in his mouth. He reacted with full body hives after DH picked him up out of his high chair after eating PB toast. My husband nor I have food allergies, but we do have season allergies.

Just read your post after mine and this definitely blows my theory out of the water. Maybe the cleanliness thing is true. As a kid we never used hand sanitizer all the time or washed constantly because we may catch something! Of course we washed after playing outside before meals. I am just as guilty of this with the wet ones etc... Hey when I was a kid in school we were never taught to cough into our arm or anything like that!!

[Green_Tea]

Our pediatrician's theory is that food allergies are the result of a bored immune system that misinterprets harmless things as a threat. She thinks this is a result of overuse of antibiotics and antibacterials, and the huge increase in immunizations that children receive. She also thinks that genetically modified foods might be playing a role. I found her take on it fascinating, because she's not anti-vax and anti-antibiotic AT ALL, but is also willing to wait things out a bit. Many of the most common allergens of today (and those in which we have seen a huge uptick in allergies to) are largely genetically modified or dosed with antibiotics - wheat, soy, peanuts, eggs, milk, etc.

I have no food allergies. My grandmother developed an allergy to seafood as a senior citizen. My husband is allergic to all nuts, but not peanuts. DD1 is allergic to peanuts, and outgrew allergies to dairy, soy and eggs. She had an anaphylactic reaction to dairy at 8 months, and had to be transported to the ER via ambulance. There is nothing scarier than a baby that can't breathe, so yeah, I do get a little heated when people suggest that perhaps we are overreacting when it comes to restricting allergens. My own FIL got into a fight with me at dinner when I explained that my 1 year old DD couldn't have butter on her bread. FIL insisted that butter isn't dairy, so she'd be fine. It can be hard NOT to be defensive about your kid's allergies when so many people assume they understand but they really just don't.

ETA: Our ped recommends letting kids eat with dirty hands once in a while. This drives my FIL NUTS. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy his reaction!