New studies have found that children who test positive for peanut allergies might not have a full-blown allergy to that particular food. UK researchers who tested seventy-nine 8 year-olds who were said to be peanut sensitive, found that only seven of them has a true allergy to the nut.
Today, a peanut allergy is diagnosed by a blood test, skin test and sometimes both. Both these tests gauge the peanut sensitivity which is the response by the immune system to the proteins in the peanut. But the true allergy is not in everyone although specific symptoms like hives, swelling and wheezing can occur after eating peanuts.
Dr. Adnan Custovic who is with the University of Manchester, claims “parents often seek peanut-allergy testing when a child has allergies to other foods, or when they have another child with a peanut allergy,” Only 7 of the 79 peanut-sensitized children showed objective symptoms during the food challenge in this study. Not a practical or routinely used option, food-challenge tests are the “gold standard” for diagnosing peanut allergy. Custovic also noted that besides being possibly casing a severs allergic reaction, the tests are expensive and time consuming.
