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June 19th, 2013 
SUNSHINE could help prevent the food allergies afflicting one in seven Australian primary school kids, the nation’s biggest childhood survey suggests.
It indicates a link between food allergies and vitamin D deficiency.
Kids aged 10 or 11 who are shielded from the sun are twice as likely to develop allergies as children without sun protection. And children living in the tropics of Queensland and the Northern Territory are half as likely as those in the southern states to suffer food allergies.
The federally-funded study, released today by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, is based on a survey of the families of 8000 children aged six to 11.
It shows that 15 per cent of the youngest children and 12 per cent of the older kids have an allergic reaction to food. Nuts are the biggest culprit – afflicting at least one in four of the children with food allergies – followed by eggs and cow’s milk.
Children from the wealthiest families are three times more likely to be allergic as poor kids in the 6 to 7 year age group, although the link is weaker for older children.
The AIFS team, including researchers from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, found that high-income families may be more likely to test their kids for allergies.
“People from higher socio-economic groups are known to engage in more ‘health-seeking’ behaviours – eg going to the doctor – and may therefore be more likely to be diagnosed with a food allergy than those from lower socio-economic groups,” the report says.
The 6 to 7-year-old children who were breastfed longer than six months are twice as likely to suffer allergies as the bottle-fed kids.
But the older children, aged 10 and 11, were less likely to have allergies if they had been breastfed.
The AIFS report notes the “contradiction in findings for breastfeeding”, and suggests that mothers who fear their babies have a high risk of food allergies might breastfeed them for longer.
In the younger group, children fed solids before four months of age were half as likely to report food allergies as children fed solids at the recommended age of six months.
Children with asthma were nearly three times more likely than non-asthmatics to have food allergies. Skin rashes, swelling of the mouth and vomiting were the three main side-effects.
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