US Government Spends $25 Billion on Children with Food Allergies

The U.S. government spends a whopping $25 billion on children with food allergies, a latest study by Chicago researchers reveals.

Eight percent of the country's children suffer from food allergies, the study stated. Researchers at Children's Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine interviewed 1,643 parents with at least one child with food allergies.

The study results showed that 37 percent of parents admitted to expenditures of average $756 yearly on special food for their children. Another nine percent of those surveyed said they gave up or lost their jobs or changed their workplace because of their children's food allergies.

According to the survey, nearly $4.3 billion were paid in medical bills, taking off from work amounting to $770 million and the other $14.2 billion were for "lost opportunity" that is giving up jobs due to children's food allergy.

"Kids with food allergies don't tend to have long hospital stays, but your expenses come in other ways," said lead author Ruchi Gupta, a pediatrician at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago and a professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. She also said that families "end up having to spend extra on foods to make sure they (children) are safe."

Data released by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases showed that children mostly suffer allergies from peanuts that affects 0.6 percent of the Americans. The number of children suffering from food allergies is on a steady rise.

The researchers advised grocery stores to add more food-sensitive items in their list. "Given these findings, research to develop an effective food allergy treatment and cure is critically needed," the study authors wrote.