Researchers followed more than 800 patients with milk allergy and nearly 900 with egg allergy over 13 years in the largest studies to date of children with milk and egg allergies.
The study, published in the November and December issues of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found that most of these allergies persist well into the school years and beyond.
"Not only do more kids have allergies, but fewer of them outgrow their allergies, and those who do, do so later than before," said lead researcher Robert Wood, M.D., head of Allergy & Immunology at Hopkins Children's.
The study also found that a child's blood levels of milk and egg antibodies - the immune chemicals produced in response to allergens - were a reliable predictor of disease behavior.
The higher the level of antibodies, the less likely it was that a child would outgrow the allergy any time soon, it said, adding pediatricians should use antibody test results when counseling parents about their child's prognosis.
