Milk allergy can take years longer to outgrow

A new study published in the November issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology suggests that most children who had a milk allergy as infants did not outgrow the disease before entering elementary school, according to Dr. Robert Wood, chief of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Wood, one of the study's authors, said that finding was contrary to previous research.

According to the study, which examined children who had been sent by a doctor to a pediatric allergy center, "the prognosis for developing tolerance [to milk] is worse than previously estimated." The authors said that the character of cow's milk allergy "has changed over time ... and may now truly be a more persistent disease."

When exposed to milk, children in the study had a range of reactions, including rashes, hives, gastrointestinal symptoms, respiratory difficulties and even multiple-organ anaphylactic shock, a severe, sometimes fatal reaction. With data collected on 807 patients, this was the largest group of milk-allergic children ever studied.

The study found that kids who had asthma and hay fever were less likely to outgrow milk allergy. There was also a worse prognosis for those who had ever received infant formula. Wood and his team concluded that a simple blood test measuring milk-specific, or IgE antibodies can have enormous value in predicting who will and will not outgrow a milk allergy. "That test has pretty significant value in predicting the natural history" of the disease and is widely available, Wood said.

Bonnie - this study is a waste of time for professionals like myself who have worked in the trenches on milk issues. Milk allergy is not easily outgrown because, simply, we are not genetically wired to tolerate milk products well. Even if an allergy subsides or is "outgrown" as allergists claim, intolerances (IgG cytotoxic) persist and are much more common than true allergy.