Current guidelines could be causing cow’s milk allergy to be over-diagnosed in infants, according to a new study.
Researchers analysed data on 1303 healthy infants who were exclusively breastfed until at least three months of age, and found that 38% and 74% of infants had multiple mild-to-moderate milk allergy symptoms – as defined by current allergy guidelines – at three months and 12 months old, respectively. By comparison, non-IgE-mediated cow’s milk allergy has a prevalence of less than 1% in children.
The researchers’ findings, which are published in Clinical & Experimental Allergy, suggest that following current guidelines may lead to over-diagnoses in infants by labelling normal infant symptoms as possible milk allergies.
“There is an assumption that the existence of a guideline is more beneficial than no guideline. However, well-meaning guidelines need to be supported by robust data to avoid harms from over-diagnosis that exceed the damage of missed and delayed cow’s milk allergy diagnoses that they are seeking to prevent,” the researchers wrote.
Source: Wiley
