Parenting.com recently highlighted the changes over the recent years in allergic children's experience with food allergies. Following is a summary of the "then and nows" when it comes to coping with food allergies:

Public Awareness of Food Allergies
• Then – Knowledge about and preparedness for food allergies was rare. Even paramedics didn't always have epinephrine to treat acute reactions.
• Now – People are becoming more and more allergy-savvy. With the rise of food allergies and increasingly widespread coverage of allergic conditions, schools, medical personnel, and individuals are more knowledgeable about how to help keep food allergic children safe.

Changing Advice about Children and Food Allergies
• Then – Hold off on introducing allergenic foods. Pediatricians used to instruct parents with a history of food allergies to delay giving their children food like peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and eggs until they were older, believing that the immune system should mature before having to deal with these potentially problematic foods.
• Now – Delaying allergenic foods is no longer recommended. A lack of evidence validating the above advice has led the American Academy of Pediatrics to withdraw their recommendation to delay introduction of allergenic foods. Though this change occurred in 2008, the old advice is still often what parents believe they need to follow. This is problematic because researchers are beginning to think that delaying these foods with allergy-prone children may make them even more likely to react to them.

Causes of Food Allergies are Becoming More Clear
• Then – The cause of allergies was a mystery.
• Now – We're getting more and more answers about the origins of allergic conditions. The hygiene hypothesis is among the most prevalent ideas about why allergies are on the rise. Changes in the food industry, specifically the increase in processed food consumption, is also viewed as a possible reason.

Food Allergy Cures Look Possible
• Then – No food allergy treatments were available.
• Now – Curing allergies is on the horizon. Desensitizing children to the foods their allergic to (under strict doctors' supervision, of course) has been successful in many trials. Herbal remedies, sublingual immunotherapy, and allergy vaccines are also showing promise.