Recently we published our observations on FPIES at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead. Specifically we examined the time it takes infants with the condition to outgrow it (see http://www.jaci-inpractice.org/article/S2213-2198(16)30485-8/abstract). The summary of our findings are:
- Children with cow’s milk or rice FPIES achieve tolerance (i.e. outgrow their allergy) much faster than those with egg or fish FPIES. Such that by 3 years of age, 85% of children with rice or cow milk FPIES can now tolerate that food, compared to 12.5% and 25% of children with egg or fish FPIES respectively
- That a positive skin test to the triggering food (usually if this occurs, it is to cow milk or egg) appears to delay tolerance (i.e. takes more time to outgrow FPIES to that food trigger)
- That children with multiple food FPIES (2 or more food triggers) did not take longer to outgrow their condition compared to those with single food FPIES
- Hence we suggest any child with cow milk or rice FPIES have a medically supervised challenge to these foods by 18-24 months of age, whilst those with fish or egg FPIES could have a challenge by 5 years of age