The number of children who have food allergies is not only increasing, it now encompasses 4% of all kids in the United States, according to an analysis of four large, national surveys published today in the journal Pediatrics.
The study is the first to make a broad estimate about the prevalence of food allergies among U.S. children and supports previous studies suggesting that allergy rates are rising rapidly for reasons that are unclear. Government researchers found that self-reported food allergies increased 18% between 1997 and 2007.