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Without a definitive diagnosis from a food challenge, children may unnecessarily avoid foods like milk, eggs, and peanuts which have significant nutritional benefits. Wood says the second study's findings provide reassurance that food challenges can be safely performed and "we hope this information helps families make a more informed decision about whether or not their child should undergo a challenge," he says.

Experts say peanut allergies, which affect approximately 1 to 2 percent of young children and 1.5 million Americans overall, are on the rise. The allergy can be triggered by as little as 1/1000th of a peanut and is the leading cause of anaphylaxis, the life-threatening allergic reaction that constricts airways in the lungs, severely lowers blood pressure, and causes swelling of the tongue or throat, and sometimes leads to death.

Co-authors of the study were David Fleischer and Mary Kay Conover-Walker of the Johns Hopkins Children's Center Division of Immunology and Allergy; and Lynn Christie and A. Wesley Burks of Arkansas Children's Hospital.

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Contact: Jessica Collins
jcolli31@jhmi.edu
410-516-4570
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
9-Nov-2004