Why are food allergies in children on the rise – and is there anything parents can do to protect them?

Around 7% of children have food allergies and, as the recent case of Natasha Ednan-Laperouse showed, in rare, tragic instances, these can be fatal. How worried should parents be?

In July 2016, Natasha Ednan-Laperouse collapsed on a flight from London to Nice, suffering a fatal allergic reaction to a baguette bought from Pret a Manger. At an inquest, the court heard how Natasha, who was 15 and had multiple severe food allergies, had carefully checked the ingredients on the packet. Sesame seeds – which were in the bread dough, the family later found out – were not listed. “It was their fault,” her father Nadim said in a statement. “I was stunned that a big food company like Pret could mislabel a sandwich and this could cause my daughter to die.”

This horrifying case highlights how careful people with allergies need to be, as do the food companies – not least because allergies have been growing in prevalence in the past few decades.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2DH6PU7
via
0 Comments