Doctors say that misdiagnosed food allergies in children are on the rise, apparently because of false positives on common allergy blood tests, reports the New York Times. These blood tests may only accurately identify allergies in 50 percent of the cases, leading to children being put on unnecessarily restrictive diets. Kids who are allergic to peanuts, for example, could test positive for soy, green bean, pea and kidney beans because they have similar proteins. One doctor even had a case where a child was being fed through a feeding tube because he'd been diagnosed as allergic to ALL foods. Once more accurate tests were performed, 20 foods were immediately declared safe.
"The only true test of whether you're allergic to a food or not is whether you can eat it and not react to it," says pediatrician Dr. David Fleischer.
Moreover, some doctors now think that introducing potentially allergenic foods like peanuts and shellfish is better done earlier than delaying until the currently recommended 2 or 3 years, as early exposure may reduce allergy risk.
Thanks to the work of a North Carolina food scientist, help is on the way for the more than half million U.S. residents who suffer from life-threatening peanut allergies.
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