Introducing your kid to new foods should be a fun experience, but there’s a hidden danger that can make taste-testing a disaster: anaphylaxis, or a severe allergic reaction. Many allergies are mild and only result in occasional sniffles, but others can be fatal. With allergies becoming more common over the past 50 years and today affecting upwards of 40% of the population worldwide, parents may wonder where allergies come from and if they’re responsible for passing down allergies to their children, or if there’s a way to prevent their kids from developing allergies. In other words, are allergies hereditary?
Children can inherit the tendency to be allergic — a characteristic known as atopy — from their parents, according to Richard Wasserman, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at the Medical City Children’s Hospital in Dallas, Texas.
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