MONDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Physicians have fair knowledge of food allergies, but there is room for improvement, according to a study published online Dec. 7 in Pediatrics, while another study in the same issue found that late introduction of solid food may increase the risk of developing allergies.
Ruchi S. Gupta, M.D., of the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and colleagues conducted a food allergy survey of 407 primary care physicians and found that 61 percent correctly answered knowledge-based items, but fewer than 30 percent reported feeling adequately trained to treat children with food allergies.
Bright I. Nwaru, of the University of Tampere in Finland, and colleagues conducted a study of 994 children with HLA-conferred susceptibility to type 1 diabetes and found that those who had a late introduction to potatoes, rye, meat and fish were more likely to have inhalant allergen sensitivity, while a late introduction to eggs, oats or wheat was the most highly associated with sensitivity to a food allergen.
"There was no evidence of reverse causality in the present study, when parental allergic rhinitis and asthma were taken into account," Nwaru and colleagues write. "These findings challenge the current recommendations regarding infant feeding for the prevention of allergic diseases."
Abstract - Gupta
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Abstract - Nwaru
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