Food allergy affects 12 million U.S. kids

DOYLESTOWN, Pa., April 4 (UPI) -- Food allergies affect about 12 million children living in the United States, and avoidance of problematic foods is often not always easy, a doctor says.

Dr. Matthew Greenhawt, a medical adviser for the Kids With Food Allergies Foundation and pediatric allergist, says his experience in investigating allergic reactions in schools had helped him learn to tell the real risks from perceived risks to children with food allergies.

He says the key findings involving pediatric food allergy are:

-- Allergic reactions occur at school and can be severe but tend to occur more frequently in younger children.

-- However, the vast majority of food allergic children attend school safely every day.

-- Physical and verbal bullying of students with food allergy occurs, and students report being teased, taunted and harassed because of allergy.

-- The risk of a severe allergic reaction occurring to an environmental accidental contact exposure that does not involve ingestion appears to be extremely low.

-- Schools sometimes employ peanut or tree nut free policies but 19 percent reported that a reaction still occurred.

-- When reactions do occur, treatment is sometimes delayed or the wrong treatment is used.

-- In published studies, the vast majority of fatal food reactions occur among teens and young adults who often had an indifference to food allergy risk and were not always carrying epinephrine.