Nearly two thirds of children with a food allergy will have outgrown it by the age of four, Australian research has found.
But the prevalence of food allergies among Australian children is still remarkably high compared to other countries.
The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) has released the findings of a “robust” study conducted at the Australian Centre of Food and Allergy Research.
The HealthNuts study involving more than 5000 kids, recruited at the age one, showed food allergy reduced from 11 per cent at age one to 3.8 per cent, or 1 in 25, at age four.
Outgrowing egg allergy was the main driver of this change, dropping from 9.5 per cent to 1.2 per cent.
The prevalence of peanut allergy fell from 3.1 per cent to 1.9 per cent.
Lead author Dr Rachel Peters, from MCRI, says the study showed up to 50 per cent experienced symptoms of any allergic disease in the first four years of their life.