NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Seventy-five percent ofchildren with cow’s milk allergy will be able to tolerate it if itis heated extensively, according to a report in the Journal ofAllergy and Clinical Immunology.

Children with persistent milk allergy produce antibodies thatreact against specific milk proteins that their immune systemrecognizes as foreign, according to Dr. Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn, fromMount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and her colleagues.Children who have outgrown their milk allergies still havemilk-specific antibodies, but the specific milk proteins thattrigger this reaction can almost entirely be destroyed throughexposure to high temperatures. The researchers therefore reasonedthat children with milk allergy might tolerate milk if it wereextensively heated.

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