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Recently our very own Advisory Board member, Dr Adam Fox, spent some time with our friends at Mumsnet to answer all their questions about lactose intolerance and allergies.

One common question to emerge was whether or not a child will grow out of their allergies.

Many Mumsnetters cited the common statistic that 80% of children with allergies will outgrow them by the age of five. Dr Fox replied that this figure is now outdated and based on older, smaller studies. More recent studies suggest that and average of 50% of children will outgrow their allergies between the ages of eight and 12.

He further elaborated that it is more common to outgrow some allergies than others. For example an allergy to milk, egg, wheat and soya is often outgrown while it is less common to ‘lose’ an allergy to nuts or fish.

One Mumsnetter, Misssic, also asked Dr Fox if allergies are genetic.

According to Dr Fox, the tendency to develop an allergy is genetic and inherited from the parents. But this does not relate to specific allergies, meaning that if both parents have allergies, a child has an 80% chance of developing allergies, but not necessarily the same as his or her parents. The type of allergies that a child could develop often depends on environmental factors.

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