Many school children avoid basic foods unnecessarily

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-02/uu-msc021716.php

Public Release: 17-Feb-2016
Many school children avoid basic foods unnecessarily
Umea University

A study on hypersensitivity to the basic foods milk, egg, fish and wheat among young school children showed that reported food hypersensitivity was eight times more common than allergies confirmed by allergy tests. This according to a new dissertation at Umeå University in Sweden.

"Most children with allergies to basic foods will develop tolerance before school age. It is therefore important to recurrently evaluate if the child's suspected or proven allergy has disappeared," explains Anna Winberg, doctoral student at the Department of Clinical Sciences and author of the dissertation.

"Parents might have been advised to exclude certain foods from the child's diet due to suspected hypersensitivity in the child during its first year of life. However, this elimination diet often continues until the child reaches 11-12 years of age, without the 'food allergy' having been evaluated. Many school children, therefore, remain on an elimination diet although it is no longer necessary, which can lead to a lower intake of important nutrients."

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