“Has anyone had a child grow out of a severe peanut or egg allergy?” one MyFoodAllergyTeam member asked. Another member responded, “Yes, my child has outgrown both.”

If you or your child are living with food allergies, you may be wondering if those allergies could eventually go away. The answer is maybe. Some people outgrow food allergies, while others don’t.

A 2023 study found that about 25 percent of children and adults reported having outgrown at least one food allergy. Scientists identified factors including age, allergy severity, access to allergy testing and family income as influences on whether someone outgrows a food allergy.

Here’s what to know about the possibility of outgrowing a food allergy.

Food Allergies Starting in Early Childhood

Food allergies are most commonly reported in infants and young children, with prevalence rates ranging from 8 percent to 17 percent. The most common food allergies reported in these age groups are milk, soy, egg, and wheat.

Studies in the U.S. have found that many children with milk, egg, soy, or wheat allergies do outgrow them. For example, about 41 percent to 50 percent of children with a milk allergy could drink milk by the time they were between 4 and 5 years old. About 50 percent of children with an egg allergy could eat eggs by age 3, and this number increased with age. For soy and wheat allergies, studies indicate that approximately 50 percent will outgrow the soy allergy by age seven, and approximately 50 percent will outgrow the wheat allergy by age 8.

Children with milk, egg, soy, or wheat allergies might have a harder time outgrowing them if they’re highly sensitive to those foods. Doctors can assess severity through food allergy tests, such as skin prick tests and blood tests measuring specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies. A larger bump from a skin test or higher IgE levels in a blood test may indicate a more severe allergy. Greater sensitivity on these tests has been linked to longer-lasting allergies to milk, soy, egg, and wheat in young children. For children with a milk allergy, having asthma and allergic rhinitis (hay fever) may also predict a more long-lasting allergy.

Food Allergies Starting in Childhood and Adolescence

Children can develop allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish later in childhood than they do to milk, egg, soy or wheat. While these allergies can sometimes go away in childhood or even teenage years, they’re more likely to persist into adulthood. Studies indicate that by the age of 4, approximately 22 percent of children with a peanut allergy will develop tolerance and between 9 percent and 14 percent of children with a tree nut allergy will develop tolerance.

Factors that may be associated with a more persistent peanut allergy include:

• A severe first allergic reaction to peanuts
• A high sensitivity to peanut-specific IgE
• An allergy another food or to dust mites

Similarly, the risks for children developing a persistent tree nut allergy include:

• An allergy to another food or tree nut
• Specific IgE levels
• Atopic dermatitis (the most common form of eczema)

A fish allergy can develop in childhood or later. One study noted a higher rate of fish allergy in older individuals, 0.5 percent in those ages 18 to 40 compared to 0.2 percent in those aged 6 to 17. Similarly, shellfish allergies may appear in childhood or later.

While some kids may outgrow their food allergy by adolescence, others may develop new allergies in their teenage years. One large study in the UK followed more than 1,400 children from birth to age 18, evaluating them at ages 1, 2, 4, 10, and 18. At age 1, 5.3 percent of the children had one or more food allergies, a rate that remained consistent through age 4. However, by age 10, the prevalence dropped significantly to 2.3 percent. At age 18, the rate of food allergies rose again to 4 percent, suggesting the development of new allergies during adolescence​.

Allergies to cow’s milk and eggs were the most common food allergies at 10 years old and younger. By age 18, the most common food allergies were peanut, tree nuts, and shellfish. Researchers believe this study sheds light on how some childhood allergies go away and how new allergies can emerge as children get older.

However, the study has some limitations. For example, there were large gaps between checkups, and not all the children were at every checkup. This makes it harder to know exactly when allergies disappeared or new ones developed.

Food Allergies Starting in Adults

You can develop new food allergies at any age, even as an adult. One large U.S. study found that 10.8 percent of adults have one or more current food allergies. Almost half (48 percent) developed at least one of their allergies as adults. The most common food allergies among adults in this study were shellfish, peanut, milk, tree nuts, and finfish.

Shellfish allergies were reported by similar percentages of adults in all age groups, affecting about 2.8 percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 and 2.6 percent of adults ages 60 and up. This small difference suggests that shellfish allergies may be more persistent than other food allergies. More research is needed to understand why these allergies develop and whether adults can outgrow them.

What Should You Do if You Think You’ve Outgrown Your Food Allergy?

If you believe you or your loved one may have outgrown a food allergy, it’s important that you work closely with an allergist or health care provider. They may recommend an oral food challenge, which involves eating the suspected allergen to determine if the allergy has been outgrown. Because this test can be risky if the allergy is still present, it should only be done in a controlled medical setting.

If testing shows that you or your loved one has outgrown the food allergy, the health care provider will advise on next steps, including regularly reintroducing the food to maintain tolerance. Follow-up with an allergist is essential, as allergies do return in rare cases. You or your loved one may also need to continue carrying emergency medications for a time as a precaution.

Talk With Others Who Understand

MyFoodAllergyTeam is the social network for people with food allergies and their loved ones. On MyFoodAllergyTeam, more than 41,000 members come together to ask questions, offer support and advice, and share their stories with others who understand life with food allergies.

Have you or a loved one outgrown a food allergy? If yes, what steps did you take to confirm that you did? What changes did you make after receiving confirmation? Share your experience or start a conversation by posting on your Activities page.