What are the chances of growing out of food allergies?

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shipmist
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Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 12:22 pm
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by shipmist on Fri Feb 08, 2013 1:23 pm

What are the chances of growing out of food allergies?

I have a 4 and a half year old whose main allergies are: nuts, raw egg, some legumes, and he is highly sensitised to sesame.

He was diagnosed with nut allergy at a year and a half old, then raw egg just before his 3rd birthday. From the age of 3 he suddenly started reacting to some legumes such as peas, greenbeans and chickpeas (despite having previously eaten these legumes fine before). He has always refused sesame and when skin-prick tested shows a very high ige response (but he has never yet eaten it).

He tolerates baked egg and always has done and even used to eat processed mayonnaise like Hellman's before I became worried about giving it to him.

For the moment, he has been advised by his hospital to keep off mustard and seeds, owing to caution following on from skin prick tests. I think he has had mustard before without issue.

What is the chance of him outgrowing any of these allergies and if so, what sort of age?

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Dr Helen Brough
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Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 3:36 pm
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by Dr Helen Brough on Sat Feb 09, 2013 11:35 am

Re: What are the chances of growing out of food allergies?

Dear Shipmist,

You son is very likely to grow of his raw egg allergy especially given he tolerates baked egg. Research from the US has shown that giving baked egg products regularly can expedite the resolution of loosely cooked and raw egg allergy. Thus I would expect your son to grow out of this allergy between the age of 5-8 years. Fresh mayonnaise may contain raw egg but processed mayonnaise usually contained processed egg thus if you child previously tolerated this there is no reason he cannot continue to eat this.

With regard to nuts and seeds (including sesame and mustard), most research shows that these are life-long allergies and only 10-20% of children grow out of these allergies. If your child previously tolerated mustard it may be worthwhile mentioning this to your allergist and they may consider arranging a diagnostic food challenge in hospital to determine whether he is allergic to mustard or not, depending how high the skin prick test is (anything above skin prick test of 6mm they would probably not recommend this though as the chances of allergy are high).

Unfortunately there is very little research on the resolution of legume allergy (peas/chick peas and lentils). Peanut however is a legume and the chances of resolution of peanut allergy is probably less than 20%.

Best wishes,
Dr Helen Brough
Consultant in Paediatric Allergy
Guy's & St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

http://www.talkhealthpartnership.com/on ... brough.php

shipmist
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Joined: Fri Feb 08, 2013 12:22 pm
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by shipmist on Sun Feb 10, 2013 10:16 pm

Re: What are the chances of growing out of food allergies?

Dear Dr. Brough

Thank you very much for this very helpful information and also in response to my post about school dinners.

I will continue to give my son baked egg regularly and will look at ways of getting this into his diet other than cake / biscuits. Our hospital said that we can give my son egg pasta. Should I be more wary of fresh egg pasta as opposed to dried pasta? How much longer should either dried or fresh egg pasta be cooked in addition to the times stated on the packets?

Many thanks in advance.

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Dr Helen Brough
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by Dr Helen Brough on Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:18 am

Re: What are the chances of growing out of food allergies?

I would not recommend fresh egg pasta however dried egg pasta (normal shop bought hard pasta) should be cooked for the usual length of time.

Best wishes,
Dr Helen Brough
Consultant in Paediatric Allergy
Guy's & St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

http://www.talkhealthpartnership.com/on ... brough.php

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