Doctors close to finding cause of childhood allergies

Doctors are getting closer to finding a treatment that could one day prevent childhood food allergies.

A new study has found a link between cells in babies' cord blood and the likelihood of them developing intolerances later in life.

Melinda Hopper discovered her twins Noah and Evie had a life-threatening allergy to eggs by accident.

“Noah had an anaphylaxis at eight months old - I fed him a tiny piece of banana bread,” she said.

“At the beginning, I thought he was choking. He started to go funny around the month, his eyes started to swell and he started to vomit.”

The three-year-olds are part of a breakthrough study that has linked food allergies to a hyperactive immune system.

Researchers tested the cord blood of more than 1000 babies and discovered those with overactive immune cells were more likely to develop intolerances.

“This is an important finding. It gives us something to hone in on in the coming years,” paediatrician, Associate Professor Peter Vuillermin, said.

“It's telling us that early life is critical and by early life we mean in utero.”

The findings could help doctors one day find treatments that could prevent childhood allergies altogether.

“Hopefully finding some sort of prevention, hopefully would make a huge difference,” Ms Hopper said.

“I'd like for them to be able to eat eggs one day.”

The next step for researchers is to find out why some babies have overactive immune cells and to look at what other factors may be involved.

“We have collected a really unique range of data and we're now going back to look at those and testing a number of hypothesis," Assoc. Prof. Vuillermin said.