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Cakes help children with egg allergy
To desensitize young children to their allergy to eggs, physicians from Greece say "let them eat cake".
- Reuters
- Published: 23:24 July 26, 2008
New York: To desensitize young children to their allergy to eggs, physicians from Greece say "let them eat cake".
Heat modifies certain egg allergens and, in turn, allows some children with egg allergies to be "treated" by feeding them ever increasing amounts of egg baked in a cake, Dr George N. Konstantinou and colleagues, at the University of Athens report. They used this approach to accelerate the development of tolerance to hen's eggs among 94 boys and girls referred to the food allergy department at the university.
After undergoing 6 months of desensitisation, 90 per cent of the children could tolerate egg baked in a cake, the researchers report in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
"Parents should be aware that there are novel approaches for handling egg allergy," said study co-investigator Dr Nikolaos G. Papadopoulos. But one note of caution from the scientists: don't try this at home with children.
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