DC Child Accident & Safety Blog

The kid who started sneezing and itching and was diagnosed with an allergy when he was 3 might well have communicated sensitivity to the responsible allergens even before he could roll over.

A study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine indicates that an allergic future can signal itself within the first month of life, long before symptoms develop.

A certain protein expressed in infant urine predicted lung, nasal and skin irritation by the time children start school. The findings are useful, the researchers wrote, for prevention and to customize treatment when symptoms do manifest.

All of the infants in the study were symptom-free when they were tested at 1 month old. By the time they were a year old, 4% developed chronic respiratory problems (wheezing, coughing), and 27% developed eczema. By the time they were 6, 17% and 15% respectively developed those symptoms.

A new federal report says that food allergies have risen 18% among American children in the last decade.

From the article:

Eight types of foods account for 90 percent of all food allergies -- milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, and wheat. Allergic reactions to these foods can range from a tingling sensation around the mouth and lips, to hives and even death, depending on the severity of the reaction, the report's authors said.

The report also said that children with food allergies are two to four times more likely to have asthma or other allergies, compared to children without food allergies.

As discussed in the article, there is much we don't know about allergies. We don't know where they come from or why some children do not outgrow the allergies by adulthood, which is what happens in the majority of cases.

The full report can be found at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) website: Food Allergies Among U.S. Children: Trends in Prevalence and Hospitalizations.