Why Are Food Allergies in Children on the Rise?

By Sean Kelley

In the last six months—ever since my youngest child was diagnosed with a sensitivity to wheat, peanuts, eggs, corn, soy, and chicken—children’s food allergies have been a constant topic of conversation whenever my wife and I get together with other parents. And everyone says the same thing: “There seems to be more kids with food allergies than there were when we growing up!”
As it turns out, there actually are more kids with food allergies nowadays, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which released a report last week confirming that the number of young people with a food allergy has increased 18% in the last 10 years alone. The CDC estimates that three million kids have a food or digestive allergy.
However, no one really knows why allergies are on the rise. Even the CDC did not speculate about the cause of the upswing. But there are a number of plausible and implausible theories for this burgeoning allergy epidemic. Read More