The study, published June 20 in Pediatrics, also showed that more than one third of those kids had severe allergies, and that allergies were more common in minority kids.
Allergies are a particularly difficult chronic condition because kids can’t escape food in any part of their daily lives, said lead author Dr. Ruchi Gupta, from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
“What I hope this paper will do is open this awareness to how common (food allergy) is and how severe it can be, and develop policies for schools and sporting events and any activities that kids participate in to make it clear that everybody is looking out for these kids,” she told Reuters Health.Previous studies have estimated that anywhere between 2 and 8 of every 100 kids in the U.S. has a food allergy.