Guidelines may promote over-diagnosis of cow’s milk allergy in infants

Press release issued: 8 December 2021

International guidelines developed to help doctors diagnose cow’s milk allergy may lead to over-diagnosis, according to University of Bristol-led research published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy today [8 December]. The study found that three-quarters of infants have two or more symptoms at some point in the first year of life, which guidelines say may be caused by cow’s milk allergy, yet the condition only affects one in 100.

Researchers found that one in four parents reported two or more possible “mild to moderate” symptoms every month. Symptoms were most numerous at three months of age, when all children were fully breastfed and not directly consuming cow’s milk. At six months of age, there was no difference in the number of children with two or more symptoms between those consuming and not consuming cow’s milk. Together, these findings suggest that the majority of symptoms listed in cow’s milk allergy guidelines are common, normal and not caused by cow’s milk allergy.

Read the full University of Bristol press release

'Frequency of guideline-defined cow’s milk allergy symptoms in infants: secondary analysis of EAT trial data' by Rosie Vincent et al. in Clinical and Experimental Allergy