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Food Allergies More Likely in First-Born Children, Study Finds
Filed under: Health & Safety: Babies, Research Reveals: Babies, Health & Safety: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Health & Safety: Big Kids, Research Reveals: Big Kids, Health & Safety: Tweens, Research Reveals: Tweens, Health & Safety: Teens, Research Reveals: Teens
First-borns are more likely to be allergic to certain foods, a new study says. Credit: Getty Images
OK, that may be a somewhat loose translation of scripture, but dang if there isn't a plague -- at least a food plague -- on the first born.
ABC News reports a new study shows first-born children are more likely to have food allergies, standing about a 4 percent chance of being allergic to peanuts and other foods. Those odds drop to 3.5 percent among second children and 2.6 among subsequent children.
Japanese researchers compared 13,000 kids between the ages 7 and 15 -- looking at the allergy rates, depending on where each child fell in terms of birth order. Researchers also asked parents if their kids experienced wheezing, eczema or food allergies before age 1.
Researchers presented their findings at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in San Francisco March 20.
"It has been established that individuals with increased birth order have a smaller risk of allergy," lead researcher Takashi Kusunoki, of the pediatrics department at Shiga Medical Center for Children and Kyoto University, says in a press release from the academy. "However, the significance of the effect may differ by allergic diseases."
Kara Corridan, health editor at Parents magazine, tells ABC News she isn't "too excited about this." The study is still very preliminary.
Nonetheless, she tells the network, this could be good news for parents grappling with food allergies with their oldest child.
"Even if there's a small fraction of a chance that younger children don't have (food allergies), that would be great," she says.
Researchers also concluded oldest children are more likely to have allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis -- conditions that affect the nose and mouth -- than their little brothers and sisters.
Why? Researchers tell ABC is could be that multiple pregnancies make a womb tough, building up its immune system with each subsequent child. It also could be the Hygiene Hypothesis, which is not the name of an episode of "The Big Bang Theory."
Rather, it's the theory that parents go a little nuts in sterilizing their home in preparation for a first child. By the time baby No. 2 comes around, everyone has chilled out and is back to eating with their hands off the kitchen floor. Outside an overly sterilized environment, you have to get tough or die.
"The more you are exposed to an allergen, the more likely it is you'll be immune to it," Corridan tells ABC News.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
3-23-2011 @ 7:06AM
Cheryl Hymel said...Someone just sent me your article on milk allergies and I want to respond and have your comment returned.
My daughter has just turned 29. She has had a milk allergy from birth. It was very hard to get any pediatrician or regular internist to take her milk allergy serious. Finally, after I do not know how many trips to the hospital and doctors office, she found an allergist to take an interest in her symptoms. After 27 years, he actually took her serious and had her tested. WOW,
27 years....she could have died many times within that time. She has undergone a series of experimental shots that is suppose to lessen her symptoms upon attack in order to receive help ..however...with something so life threatening...there is no way to test this.
We just need to hope that on her next attack...this will work long enough to get her immediate medical attention.
It may only affect 2.5 percent of the human population, but when you helplessly watch your child not able to breath, hoping that you get her help in time, someone needs to step up to the plate and take this allergy a lot more serious, Especially with the constant changes of foods and additives today.
My daughter's last visit to the hospital....was due to a protein water. WATER...yes...I even wrote the company saying they needed to write a huge warning on their label..but not to any surprise...no response. We have kept her totally away from any items containing milk and derivatives of milk, yet things she could have, or you felt she could have yesterday....have now added derivatives that trigger this allergy. I mean come on...water! We have had to read and reread every label, question every restaurant, and still people who have never experienced such a critical allergy, shrug it off as...well just a minor stomach irritation. A warning needs to go out to the public...doctors, restaurant or any food personnel workers, child care takers....To give an idea of how others are totally oblivious to this; It was not until my daughter was gasping for air one day in a restaurant, after numerous times asking the waiter a list of ingredients, charging her for a water bottle in the meantime...the waitress would not believe she was having a reaction to one bite of salad that had Italian dressing on it....finally running back to the cook, she found out it was a homemade dressing with cheese in the ingredients...well great...but too late. We spent more than half a night in the emergency room.
Please advise parents who even suspect their child may have this deadly allergy to take it serious, stand up to your doctor, and be cautious, read and reread, even if they had the same item or similar item last week. We have had surprises from popsicles, gum, water. This is not an allergy children grow out of. PLEASE put out an alert.
Thank you for ...at least reading what I had to say.
Sincerely,
Cheryl Hymel
Reply