Eczema in young babies could be a sign that a child will go on to develop more allergies.
New research, published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics, confirms a phenomenon known as the “allergic march” — a pattern that describes the way allergies tend to develop and progress in children, beginning in infancy through age 3.
The study, which analyzed medical records data collected between 1999 and 2020 from more than 200,000 children, found that kids tended to be first diagnosed with eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, at 4 months, on average. Next came diagnoses of food allergies that cause symptoms that range from hives to anaphylaxis — a life-threatening allergic reaction that affects the whole body and can cause the airways to swell and close — and asthma, both around 13 months old. At 26 months, the study found, children developed allergic rhinitis, or hay fever. In rare cases, children may go on to develop a fifth allergy, called eosinophilic esophagitis, by 35 months old.
Dr. Stanislaw Gabryszewski, a fellow in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who led the study, said the “allergic march” doesn’t mean every child who has eczema will develop every allergy described.
“Each child is different. Some may have one, others may have a couple, others may have all of them,” he said.
About 1 in 5 children has one of these types of allergies, making them one of the most common chronic illnesses in kids. Just over 13% of children have at least two types of allergic conditions, the researchers said.
The findings are helpful for both parents and physicians, who can monitor kids who develop eczema early in life more closely for other allergies later on.
“Eczema early in life is the No. 1 risk factor for developing allergies later in life, far more than family history,” said Dr. Ruchi Gupta, founding director of the Center for Food Allergy and Asthma Research at Northwestern University and Lurie…
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