Podcast: New research upends our understanding of the link between eczema and food allergies

Kids with eczema commonly have food allergies too. Desperate, sleep deprived parents often wonder if food allergies are making their child’s eczema worse or even causing it. Promising new research is upending what we thought we knew about the relationship between eczema and allergies. In a recent GPER podcast, two doctors explain how our understanding of food allergies is changing medical advice for parents.

How kids with eczema develop food allergies

Dr. Dr. Michael Pistiner, Director of Food Allergy Advocacy, Education and Prevention at Massachusetts General Hospital says we’re now learning how kids with eczema become sensitized to foods – and it’s not what we’ve thought.  

Kids with eczema become allergic to foods not by eating them, but by being exposed through their skin early in life. It’s possible that the damage skin barrier and inflamed skin make these children more susceptible to developing allergies by this route. The implication? We need to introduce commonly allergic foods to babies before they have a chance to be sensitized through the skin.

Many if not most parents have been advised by their pediatricians to avoid introducing foods like dairy, egg and peanuts to their young infants with eczema. But research is now showing that introducing these foods as early as possible helps children develop tolerance instead of allergies.  

“We have a lot of work to do share this new information out to our parents,” says Korey Capozza, GPER’s Director. “It’s exciting that we may have a way to prevent some of the serious food allergies children with eczema often face.” 

The Sunbeam Study sheds light on the causes of food allergies and eczema

Dr. Corinne Keet is spearheading an exciting new study by the NIAID Consortium of Food Allergy Research. The Sunbeam study, which has just begun enrolling 2500 pregnant women, will look at markers in mothers and children that go on to develop eczema and food allergies. Following children from birth to 3 years, it will try to answer:

• Who is at high risk of developing food allergies and eczema?

• What are the biological pathways that lead to these conditions?

• What are the environmental factors that contribute to them?

The study will use 260 biological samples from skin, gut and hair to give detailed information that has never been available before.

The future looks bright

When asked what they think the future might look like for families of children with eczema and allergies, both doctors were optimistic.

Dr Pistiner expected “Most pediatricians would know new strategies for early food introduction for their patients.” And Dr. Keet thought we would finally have information on how to treat each child more precisely depending on their biology environmental exposures.