A recent study has revealed that toddlers and even infants can have allergies; that they are not too young to have nasal allergic reactions. This is particularly true for those infants who have a family history of nasal allergies.
The study examined upward of 18,000 children aged one and a half. As many as 9 % of the children were seen to have symptoms of nasal allergies or allergic rhinitis.
Earlier there was some dispute as to the kind of allergies that small babies can suffer from. While food allergies have been seen to occur in very young children, there was ambivalence as to whether they could react to dust, pet dander and mold with allergic reactions as early as the first year of life.
The reason that there is uncertainty regarding this is that it is difficult to pinpoint the reason for a child’s runny or stuffy nose – whether it is a cold or an allergic reaction that is responsible.
And babies often catch cold so it is important not to assume an allergic reaction each time, even though this study shows that it is indeed possible for infants to have allergies and lend credence to the hypothesis that allergic rhinitis could begin as early as 18 months of life.
