Child Food Allergies On The Rise In The Us

[kenlove]

Child food allergies on the rise in the US

By Jane Byrne , 17-Nov-2009

There has been an 18 percent increase in reported food allergy among US children between 1997 and 2007, according to new research.

And the article in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics reports that parents of almost four percent of US children reported a food or digestive allergy in their child.

The study's lead researcher Amy Branum, a health statistician for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suggests that greater awareness may partially explain the dramatic increase in rates of pediatric food allergies.

But she claims more research is needed to determine what factors exactly are contributing to this increase.

The study notes that peanut allergies accounted for nine percent and egg allergies seven percent and milk allergies accounted for 12 percent, claims the author.