NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – To desensitize youngchildren to their allergy to eggs, physicians from Greece say “letthem eat cake.”

Heat modifies certain egg allergens and, in turn, allows somechildren with egg allergies to be “treated” by feeding them everincreasing amounts of egg baked in a cake, Dr. George N.Konstantinou and colleagues, at the University of Athensreport.

They used this approach to accelerate the development oftolerance to hen’s eggs among 94 boys and girls referred to thefood allergy department at the university.

After undergoing 6 months of desensitization, 90 percent of thechildren could tolerate egg baked in a cake, the researchers reportin a preliminary, online posting by the Journal of Allergy andClinical Immunology.

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