Greater diversity of bacteria in the stools of infants was found to be associated with a lesser likelihood of having allergies to foods such as egg, milk, or peanuts in a new study.

Christine Joseph, epidemiologist in the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan, and colleagues, stated that the results could pave way for new approaches to prevent immunoglobulin E-mediated food allergy (IgE-FA).

Out of the 447 children with sufficient data in the study, 44 had IgE-FA. About 59% of these children were allergic to one food, 30% were allergic to two foods, and 11% were allergic to three foods. The most common allergy was to egg, followed by peanut and milk. Among children at 3-5 years, the stool samples of those who were allergic had considerably lesser diversity of gut microbiota in comparison with non-allergic children, especially to milk and peanut. The difference was found to be statistically significant. The findings are published in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology… (Medscape)