If Your Kid Has a Food Allergy, Here's 1 Reason You Might Want to Get Him Retested

For kids especially, food allergies of any sort aren't something to be taken lightly: some children's throats could close if somehow shellfish touches their meals, and others could be sent into anaphylactic shock if a classmate's parent packs them a PB and J. Although food allergies are terrifying in extreme cases, the number of kids with them may not be as high as you think, according to a new study.

A recent study in Pediatrics found that if allergies are an issue for your child, you should consider undergoing more than one allergy test. The research found that cases of self-reported food allergies in kids hovered at around 12 percent. But once follow-up tests were done on the very same patients, the rate dropped to a mere three percent.

Is getting your kid retested something to consider if you're having second thoughts? To be blunt, for the amount of money EpiPens are going for these days, yes.

Still these new findings go against other reported numbers: "According to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 1997 and 2011, the prevalence of food allergies among adults in the US rose by 50 percent," says an article in Medical News Today. "Among children, food allergy prevalence is estimated to have increased by 18 percent between 1997 and 2007."

Although doctors aren't completely certain how or why these numbers have increased so drastically, the medical community has a few hunches. Some experts point to the misunderstanding of allergy tests in the first place. Blood tests and skin pricks aren't totally foolproof — their purpose is to detect the amount of antibodies to the food, rather than diagnosing whether or not your child has an allergy.

So if you suspect your kid has a food allergy, make sure he sees an allergist along with his regular pediatrician to get a thorough diagnosis. Keep in mind, the best way to truly tell if your child is allergic to anything is to do a "food challenge" where your kid samples food and her reaction is tracked under the watchful eye of a medical professional.