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Can Children Outgrow Food Allergies? Sometimes – The Facts Might Surprise You

Can Children Outgrow Food Allergies? Sometimes – The Facts Might Surprise You

Food allergies affect over 15 million Americans, the majority of whom are children. Have you ever thought about why this is the case? Or why many children outgrow their food sensitivities as they get older? The solution has to do with our immune systems’ ability to distinguish between harmful and harmless foreign chemicals.

It’s all about the antigens

Food includes macromolecular marks known as antigens, which the immune system detects as alien, much like diseases. Life would be impossible if our immune system mistook every food for a threat. Fortunately, the stomach can create a variety of T-regulatory cells, sometimes known as “Treg” cells, which dampen the immune response to certain dietary proteins.

Researchers looked into the Treg development process to determine if eating different meals spurred the generation of new Tregs in a newly published study. The researchers studied two groups of mice: one that had been grown and fed normally, and another that had been maintained in a germ-free environment and fed an elemental diet of amino acids rather than whole proteins. Because amino acids are too tiny for the immune system to identify, the mice in this second group had never been exposed to any antigens.

The mice in the second group had almost no Tregs, but the animals in the first group had unique populations of Tregs that were created by food exposure and gut interaction with beneficial bacteria.

The second group of mice produced a large immunological response after being fed a novel protein for the first time. This is comparable to what happens when a youngster is exposed to one of the most frequent food allergens, such as milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, and fish for the first time. An allergic response may occur if the youngster lacks associated Tregs from helpful microorganisms in the gut. They might, however, produce their own Tregs over time and with a diversified diet, reducing or eliminating their immunological response.

How can I know whether a child would tolerate a food to which they have had an allergic reaction?

Because specific food allergens might cause severe responses in some children, it’s not a good idea to force them to consume them in the hopes of triggering the development of relevant Tregs, or to see whether they’ve already grown useful Tregs from exposure to other foods and microorganisms.

You may get your child tested for food allergies on a regular basis by a competent allergy doctor. Your doctor can tell you whether it’s safe to start introducing foods that your kid had an allergic response to when he or she was younger.

Please call Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Medical Group now to schedule an appointment with a trained allergy doctor regarding your child’s food sensitivities.