A new study finds that children who are allergic to milk allergy may exceed drinking increasing amounts of milk.
In 2008, researchers from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore reported that children with severe allergy to milk could “retrain” the immune system to tolerate milk and other dairy products consumed gradually increasing doses.
In the current study, researchers followed 18 children between 6 and 16 whose symptoms had eased or disappeared during the previous study.
When 13 of the 18 children returned to the clinic until 17 months later, six continued without having reactions after drinking 7.6 ml (16 ounces) of milk, double the amount that was tested in the previous study. Seven children had mild reactions such as itchy mouth, hives, sneezing and stomach pain after drinking less than 7.6 ml. A child needs to cough, the researchers noted in a press release from Johns Hopkins.
The researchers also tracked three children who could not drink more than 1.2 ml (2.5 ounces) of milk at the end of the preliminary study. The study authors found that the three continued drinking milk every day with only mild reactions. Two managed to take more than 1.2 ml with few problems.
The study was published in the online edition of August 10 of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
According to the study, a key to keep allergy at bay seems to be the regular consumption of milk and dairy products.
“We now have evidence from other studies that some children are treated as successfully, remain free of allergy even without daily exposure, while in others, allergy returns as suspending the daily exposure to milk, said Dr. Robert Wood, author of the study and director of allergy and immunology at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. “This could mean that some patients are actually cured of the allergy, while in others, the immune system adapts to regular exposure to milk and could, in fact, need to continue to tolerate exposure.
The researchers also examined the milk allergy skin prick tests, a standard test for food allergy. Between eight and fifteen months after the study, seven children showed no reactions. Blood levels of IgE antibodies to milk allergy that point, slowly decreased, while IgG4, an antibody that indicates immunity to an allergen, increased.
The authors also found that the prevalence of reactions continued to decline over time.
As part of the study, children and their parents kept daily logs of consumption of milk and dairy products, and reported symptoms, including hives, abdominal pain, sneezing and coughing. During the first three months, drinking milk reactions triggered almost half of the time. Over the next three months, milk reactions triggered 23 percent of the time, whereas no reactions were reported in some children.
The milk allergy is the most common food allergy. Among those allergic to milk proteins cause the immune system overreaction that involve a cascade of symptoms ranging from hives, itching, swelling and vomiting to anaphylaxis in severe cases.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three million American children have at least one food allergy.
