Back in the days, kids having allergies wasn’t a common thing, but today, many children have allergies to peanuts, eggs or milk. According to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, the prevalence of children under the age of 18 afflicted with food allergies increased by 18% from 1997 to 2007. For some food allergies, the increase has been even steeper. And a Canadian study about peanut allergies conducted on Montreal families showed an increase from 1.34% in the 2000-2002 period to 1.62% prevalence in the 2005-2007 period. After reading this article, I reflected on many parents’ action that might have caused the increase number in allergic children.
In the 1990s, as allergies are becoming more prevalent, pediatricians and other experts responded by counseling parents to delay the introduction of more allergenic foods. But in fact, studies have shown “that delayed introduction may provide no benefit and may actually make things worse”. So what parents were doing is that they only allow their children consumer eggs/ milk/ peanuts after a certain age, and that has caused a higher rate of allergies. What was interesting about the article was that our children’s immune systems may consider foods that weren’t exposed in the first year of life as a contaminant.
These actions has narrowed some peoples’ food choice and made them cautious on eating. This also hurts the economy, as less people can intake these diary or nut products, and those country who produce them in a vast quantity might suffer. A good recommendation for parents to do is to introduce the full complement of a family’s diet as soon as it’s practical, so the immune system won’t act in a negative way. I think people we’ve just over- medicalized food introduction over the years.