Australian research into egg allergy tolerance

Monday, 11 May 2009 22:00

Egg allergy is said to affect 1-2% of 2 year old children in Australia and in several other countries, however many children are known to outgrown their allergy by school age. Researchers in Sydney have set out to assess whether strict adherence to certain dietary advice was an identifiable factor in whether children outgrew their egg allergy. They found that despite dietary advice to strictly avoid foods containing eggs, this practice, as well as accidentally consuming foods containing eggs, appeared to have no impact on when or whether the child would ultimately outgrow their egg allergy.

A group of 167 children with reported egg allergy took part in the study, with data collected by questionnaire for the period 2003-2006. Data showed that 68% of the children avoided all food containing egg all the time. Although they tried to avoid foods containing egg, 47% of the children had accidentally eaten foods containing egg. Some of the children were found to be able to eat cooked egg without having a clinical reaction and were subsequently classified as having outgrown their egg allergy.

The authors therefore maintain that strict avoidance of egg is not always necessary where the child does not suffer any reaction to it, despite a prior diagnosis of egg allergy.

Reference: Allen et al. 2009 Paediatric Allergy and Immunology. Vol 20 pp 213-218.