More and more kids are being diagnosed with food allergies for things like eggs, peanuts and dairy these days. But did you know that it's actually fairly common for pre-teens to grow out of their food allergies? Allergists went on the record for NBC26 to unpack how more kids are kicking their allergies these days and how you can find out if your child could benefit from a food challenge test.
According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention 15 million Americans have a food allergy which amounts to roughly two kids in every single class room. Perhaps more alarming though is that in the last 10 years the diagnosis for these allergies has increased 50 percent in children. But allergists say it's not something most kids will have to deal with for life.
Sitting down on a nightly basis for dinner for most families is complicated enough. But add a food allergy to the equation and it get’s that much more difficult.
"No eggs. Nothing that contains eggs," says Paula Goeben of De Pere describing what she had to keep off of the table for her son Miles. Miles had to avoid eggs after his parents discovered at a young age he broke out in hives after eating them. Today at age 11 he recalls double checking everything before consuming it.
“I checked the ingredients list before I ate anything," says Miles Goeben.
For Miles Goeben and his mother the egg allergy was just part of life. Paula would check the monthly menu at school to find out if she had to send a bag lunch with her boy on some days. On other days when he would sleep over at a friend’s house she would check in with parents to find out what’s for breakfast and dinner. It was admittedly tough to stay on top of all the meals all the time.
"You read all the articles, you join parent groups, you figure out what you need to do. You just get creative in the kitchen," says Paula who admits it got easier over time.
Miles attempted to learn to avoid all foods containing eggs. A challenge for any pre-teen let alone a mom or dad.
"Brownies, sweet rolls, egg rolls, jelly rolls," say Miles describing some of the things that were off limits because they contained eggs.
But after consulting with their allergist at Prevea Health, they considered finding out if he had possibly outgrown the allergy.
"There are many people that are getting diagnosed without even seeing an allergist," says DO Bradley Locke a Pediatric Allergist at Prevea Health.
The Goeben’s discovered how common being misdiagnosed from primary care doctors can be and that Miles at age eleven, may have out grown his allergy already.
"They have been told this is something they have to avoid their entire life but that's why we retest them to see it the allergy has gone away," says Mr. Locke.
The test is called a food challenge. Under doctor supervision patients will be given small amounts of the food their allergic too and then watched for any kind of reaction.
"We were a little nervous going in because he had not had this before," says Paula Goeben.
Fortunately Miles passed the test and can now eat egg based foods once again.
"He’s thrilled to go to parties now where he doesn't have to bring his own cake… it was huge. You know we were adjusted to the way that life was with having a food allergy but not having it has just opened a lot of doors," adds Paula.
And while it's a fact that about 1 in 13 kids will be diagnosed with a food allergy, today one family is sharing their story to remind parents that getting a second opinion from an allergist was worth it, at least for them.
Dairy and egg are the most common childhood allergies that are outgrown. Peanut allergies though, only about 20 percent of people will be able to kick that allergy with age.
