Preventing Infant Food Allergies

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International Food Information Council Foundation

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Although food allergies affect only a small number of children, finding a way to prevent them or at least delay their onset is an important goal for parents and researchers alike.

According to a new study in the June 1995 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, high-risk infants who did not consume cow's milk, eggs and peanuts during infancy and whose mothers also avoided those foods during the perinatal period had a reduced incidence of food allergy and eczema in the first two years of life.

However, such maternal and infant food avoidance had no significant impact on the development of allergic disease in the long run.

"The most common food allergies-to milk and eggs-tend to disappear by age three to five," said Robert S. Zeiger, M.D., Ph.D., chief of allergy at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Diego. "However, allergies to peanuts and fish continue to be present up through at least age seven, according to our study. Other studies have found these allergies may be life-long."

Zeiger's investigation is the longest, prospective, randomized, controlled study of food allergen avoidance that has been conducted worldwide. He followed 165 children from birth to age seven who were at high-risk of develo-ping allergies because of their parents' allergic conditions.

Children have a 40 to 70 percent chance of developing allergies if both parents have allergies, depending on whether the parents share the same allergy. The risk drops to about 20 to 30 percent with one allergic parent and to 10 percent if the parents have no allergies.

While genetic inheritance sets the stage for the development of allergies, environmental exposures must come into play before allergic disease is expressed.

"Avoiding the early introduction of potentially allergenic foods is the basic step in the primary prevention of food allergies in children who are at high risk," said Zeiger. But some infants may still become sensitized or allergic to a food.

"Thus, it may be important to clinically test for certain allergic antibodies in high-risk children and to take aggressive secondary prevention measures, if necessary," Zeiger advised.

Signs of food allergy in infants include eczema, hives, wheezing, or vomiting from formula. Fortunately, early detection of a food allergy can help reduce its severity.

"Since children with food allergies are several times more likely to develop a respiratory allergy as they get older, the earlier we can identify food and other allergic conditions, the earlier we can step in to prevent allergic disorders like asthma and allergic rhinitis," said Zeiger.

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Reprinted from the International Food Information Council Foundation