Reston Mom: new thoughts on food allergies

I am uber grateful that no one in my family has asthma or food allergies. As we have never had any history of such, I never delayed introducing food to my children (even at the recommendation of my pediatricians, which I'm not saying is a good thing). Peanut butter, eggs, and strawberries, etc... have been part of our kids' diets since about the time they started eating solid foods. Notwithstanding that some children really do have extremely serious food allergies or may be prone to them due to a family history - I was curious about some of the latest information that has popped up regarding this topic. Here are two recent ones:

Here is an article from The New York Times entitled "Doubt is Cast on Many Reports of Food Allergies".

the article states :

"A new report, commissioned by the federal government, finds the field is rife with poorly done studies, misdiagnoses and tests that can give misleading results."

" the true incidence of food allergies is only about 8 percent for children and less than 5 percent for adults, said Dr. Marc Riedl, an author of the new paper and an allergist and immunologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Yet about 30 percent of the population believe they have food allergies. And, Dr. Riedl said, about half the patients coming to his clinic because they had been told they had a food allergy did not really have one."

Also, the American Academy of Pediatrics no longer recommends waiting to introduce foods believed to be highly allergenic.

A recent Finnish study found that withholding eggs, oats, and wheat in particular might actually increase a child's risk of food allergies, while withholding potatoes, rye, meat, and fish may actually increase a child's risk of sensitivity to inhalant allergies (ie: seasonal pollen).