A Tokyo Metropolitan Government health survey has found that 14.4 percent of 3-year-old children surveyed in 2009 had acquired food allergies at some stage -- more than double the figure recorded 10 years earlier.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, it is the first time that a major survey with comparable results has confirmed a trend of increasing food allergies among pre-school children in Japan.
In a survey in 1999, 36.8 percent of children were found to have been diagnosed with some sort of allergy by the time they turned 3. The figure stood at 36.7 percent in 2004 and 38.8 percent in 2009, hovering around the same level.
However, the number of children diagnosed with food allergies rose from 7.1 percent in 1999 to 8.5 percent in 2004, and then to 14.4 percent in the latest survey.
Takehiko Matsui, head of the pediatric ward of Tokyo's Ebara hospital and a member of a Tokyo Metropolitan Government committee on allergic ailments, said a changing diet may be behind the rising trend in food allergies.
"There is no simple cause, but a change in diet with an increase in additives and processed food is probably one reason," he said. "Other possible reasons are that children can now eat food that wasn't eaten a long time ago, and start eating baby food at an earlier stage."
Egg triggered allergic reactions in 83.9 percent of the children who had acquired food allergy in the latest survey, followed by milk at 36.3 percent and wheat at 12.9 percent.
Surveys have been conducted every five years since 1999. They are distributed to the parents of 3-year-old children following the children's October health examinations. Last year the survey targeted 7,247 children, asking whether they had conditions such as asthma, food allergies or atopic dermatitis. A total of 2,912 responses were received -- 40.2 percent of the total number. For the first time, a similar survey was also conducted on kindergartens and nurseries authorized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
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