Researchers at the University of Portsmouth have found that, contrary to popular belief, the rate of food hypersensitivity is not rising. 

In a three-year £600,000 research funded by the Food Standards Agency, Dr Carina Venter studied nearly all the babies born in one year on the Isle of Wight. The number of babies believed by their mothers to be allergic to some foods is disproportionate to the actual number found to be allergic, according to a study.

Dr Carina Venter found that parents were too quick to assume their child had an allergy or intolerance to a specific food.

She also discovered that food hypersensitivity had not increased since a previous study on the subject 20 years ago.

Dr Venter said:

“People have become more aware of food allergies, particularly of peanut allergy. Mums tend to put down every rash, tummy ache, diarrhoea and crying to food allergy or intolerance.

“I sympathise with them, it seems reasonable to blame the food when an infant screams or turns red in the face minutes after being fed it for the first time.

“Also, some babies might react strongly to some common foods and then outgrow this allergy or intolerance within a year or two.”

Dr Venter said that by the age of three about 75% of the babies who were allergic to or intolerant of milk had outgrown their reaction and half had outgrown their reaction to eggs.

Of 807 babies in the study, more than a third of their parents (272) said their child was allergic or intolerant to one or more foods. But less than 60 babies proved to be allergic to any food by the age of three.

Copyright Press Association News.