{"id":769150,"date":"2026-06-29T16:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/769150\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T16:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:11:09","slug":"avoid-infant-egg-allergies-with-this-one-tip-from-allergists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/769150\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoid infant egg allergies with this one tip from allergists"},"content":{"rendered":"

In June 2026, allergy specialists reported in JAMA paediatrics<\/a> that the number of Australian kids with an egg allergy is trending down. What\u2019s going on over there? It turns out that Australian allergists were ahead of the curve when it came to updating advice for parents about how to avoid an egg allergy.<\/p>\n

Delay Tactics<\/p>\n

In recent years researchers have found that tots whose parents ban peanut<\/a> products or egg in their early years are more likely to end up with an allergy than the general population. Several systematic reviews and meta-analyses have shown that recommendations to delay peanuts, eggs and other possible allergens until a child reached one to three years old were flawed.<\/p>\n

In one reanalysis of existing data, delaying eggs had a notable effect. Researchers showed that far from being more likely to have an allergy, youngsters who ate egg products at four to six months old were around 0.56 times less likely to develop an egg allergy. As a result, in 2016, Australian allergists revised infant feeding guidelines for allergy prevention in a bid to help kids avoid egg allergies. They recommend that parents to let their infants try egg and peanut products from as young as four months old.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Society for Allergy and clinical immunology and the American Academy of allergy, asthma, and immunology were more cautious. They only followed suit in 2021. The question is, did updating the guidelines help reduce the number of tots who developed an egg allergy? Did this change in approach help to confirm that delaying the introduction of some foods ups your child\u2019s chances of developing an allergy?<\/p>\n

Testing Times<\/p>\n

Almost a decade after the update to the guidelines, it\u2019s time for researchers to investigate whether the changes had helped kids avoid an egg allergy. Other academics have found that Australian parents were quick to adapt to this new information. Within three years of the change, the proportion of parents who gave their youngsters egg products in their first year went from 25% before the change to 58%. With this substantial increase in egg exposure, allergists should be able to see some difference in egg allergy rates if timing matters. So how many children avoided an egg allergy in the first few years after the Australians adopted the new guidelines?<\/p>\n

The team of scientists and doctors based out of the University of Queensland and University of Melbourne, Australia took up the challenge. Did that more than doubling in the number of parents who said they fed their kids egg in the first year of their child\u2019s life affect egg allergy rates? If the allergists were wrong, and feeding youngsters egg during infancy caused allergies, they should see an uptick. If early eggs prevent allergies or the delay triggers allergies, then they should see rates go down.<\/p>\n

In fact the researchers saw a 10% decrease in the number of kids who developed allergies in the years after the guidelines changed.<\/p>\n

In Clinic Quiz<\/p>\n

The team took an observational approach, using epidemiological data gathered between 2007 and 2011 for the HealthNuts study and comparing it to data from its sequel, the 2018\u20132019 EarlyNuts Study. Both of these projects collected information about their demographics, infant feeding and allergies followed by a quick allergy test for four foods\u2009\u2013\u2009including egg whites. Parents volunteered to fill out surveys during their baby\u2019s immunization appointment and then a doctor or nurse would give the child a skin prick test and an oral food challenge to egg to see if they had a reaction.<\/p>\n

In the years between 2007 and 2011, 51271 children had skin prick tests. In 2018-19, 1419 kids got their skin prick tests. The researchers calculated that to see a big change in the rates of allergies, they would need at least 2000 participants in the 2018-19 cohort.<\/p>\n

The two groups were pretty similar in terms of family circumstances, allergy histories and birth stories, except that in 2018\u20132019 slightly more parents were born in East Asia. The difference was around 5%. This is a notable observation because some studies show that people in East Asia have a higher risk of egg allergies. In fact, previous work from these researchers indicated that kids with one or more parents who were born in East Asia are three times more likely to have an egg allergy than the general Australian population.<\/p>\n

Did Earlier Egg-Eaters Avoid an Allergy?<\/p>\n

First the question the researchers investigated was, were parents feeding their kids eggs earlier? In 2007-11, more than half of parents waited until their child was at least eight months old before giving them eggs. After the guidelines changed, the weight dropped to a median of six months. Overall, the proportion of kids who tried eggs before the age of six months rose from 25.4% to 57.3 in 2018-19. More than 90% of parents in both cohorts started weaning their kids by four to six months. Parents born in East Asia were less likely to give their children egg products before they reached six months.<\/p>\n

So parents adapted to the guidelines by introducing eggs to their kids, on average, two months earlier. This is a pretty small change, but this two-month difference would be impactful enough to influence the rate of egg allergies.<\/p>\n

In the 2007-11 cohort, 9.2% of kids have an egg allergy. By 2018-19 the prevalence had fallen to 8.3%. Some statistical adjustments modified these proportions to 8.8% and 8.2%, so not quite such a big difference, but that\u2019s still almost 10% fewer youngsters reacting to egg.<\/p>\n

Egg-specially Helpful for Kids With Eczema<\/p>\n

When we take a look at the breakdown, the differences become easier to see. Before the guideline change, only 23% of kids with one or more parents born in Australia encountered eggs before they were six months old, and 7.4% reacted to eggs at their immunization appointment. After the changes in 2018-2010, more than 60% of kids with one or more parents born in Australia had tried eggs at 6 months old and 7.3% reacted to eggs.<\/p>\n

In contrast after the guidelines changed, parents born in East Asia were 15% more likely to feed their kids eggs before six months and their egg allergy rates dropped from 20.7% to 15.9%.<\/p>\n

Another important finding was that kids who had eczema (a risk factor for developing food allergies) were also less likely to be allergic to eggs if they tried them earlier. Before the guidelines changed, kids with eczema were more likely to eat eggs later, with only 22% trying them before they were six months old. After the guidelines changed, 58% of parents felt comfortable giving their child with eczema eggs prior to six months.<\/p>\n

In 2007\u20132011 34.6% of kids who had eczema were allergic to eggs, but in 2018-19, this dropped to 21.9%. Kids who didn\u2019t have eczema didn\u2019t show a meaningful change in allergy rates.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s N-egg-st?<\/p>\n

So what did we learn? Firstly, introducing egg early at between 4 and 6 months old did not increase the rate of egg allergies in kids. Next the researchers showed that if you had a low risk of egg allergy anyway, eating eggs early or later didn\u2019t matter. youngsters with risk factors for allergies, i.e. one or more parents born in East Asia, or eczema,<\/a> saw the biggest benefit from the changes. Overall it looks like the Australians were right to adapt their allergy guidance, as children with eczema were 1.6 times more likely to develop an egg allergy if their parents withheld eggs until after 6 months.<\/p>\n

This is a snap shot of the circumstances in 2018\u20132019. Whether this decline in egg allergies will prove to be directly linked to the timing of egg exposure and the extent of the trend ten years later remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

In the meantime at least now there\u2019s one less worry for parents choosing baby\u2019s first solids.<\/p>\n

Sources<\/p>\n

Koplin JJ, Shifti DM, Soriano VX, et al. Egg Allergy Prevalence Before and After Guidelines for Earlier Egg Introduction. JAMA Pediatr. Published online June 8, 2026. doi:10.1001\/jamapediatrics.2026.2080<\/a><\/p>\n

Dahdah L, Mazzuca C, Urbani S, Fiocchi A. Food allergy prevention by early introduction. Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 2026;26(3):221. doi:10.1097\/ACI.0000000000001160<\/a><\/p>\n

Fleischer DM, Chan ES, Venter C, et al. A Consensus Approach to the Primary Prevention of Food Allergy Through Nutrition: Guidance from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology; American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology; and the Canadian Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. 2021;9(1):22-43.e4. doi:10.1016\/j.jaip.2020.11.002<\/a><\/p>\n

Ierodiakonou D, Garcia-Larsen V, Logan A, et al. Timing of Allergenic Food Introduction to the Infant Diet and Risk of Allergic or Autoimmune Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA. 2016;316(11):1181-1192. doi:10.1001\/jama.2016.12623<\/a><\/p>\n

Koplin JJ, Peters RL, Ponsonby AL, et al. Increased risk of peanut allergy in infants of Asian-born parents compared to those of Australian-born parents. Allergy. 2014;69(12):1639-1647. doi:10.1111\/all.12487<\/a><\/p>\n

Tsai YA, Wang CY, Liu XL, Yong SB, Wang JY. Hen\u2019s Egg Allergy: Immunological Mechanisms, Epidemiology, and Predictors of Persistence in Childhood. Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Research. 2026;18(3):339-350. doi:10.4168\/aair.2026.18.3.339<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In June 2026, allergy specialists reported in JAMA paediatrics that the number of Australian kids with an egg…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,273243,25915,273244,110574,84,2852,273245],"class_list":["post-769150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cross-sectional-analyisis","tag-diet-and-nutrition","tag-epidemilogy","tag-food-allergy","tag-health","tag-immunology","tag-parentimg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}