If you have sent a kid off to kindergarten in the last few years than they may have come home with a letter stating that someone has a food allergy in the class that restricts what you're allowed to send with your child for lunch every day. And your first reaction to this is that it seems that more people are showing up with food or other allergies than were around when you were small. It seems that people need to worry about everything from what's in the air to the metals that you're touching when you're working. Is it really true that allergies are becoming more common?

One of the explanations that a doctor will likely give you when asking about the increase of allergies is that it is not so much that more people have them but that they are easier to diagnose. Ten years ago a person might have still had trouble living with the dander from a cat in their condo and just didn't know what was causing their sneezing and runny nose.

Another factor is that allergies are in the genes and this gene is spreading rapidly over the past forty years. When you're a baby in the few first months of life your body is supposed to build up defenses against all of the illnesses that you might face and learn to deal with other factors that you might encounter. When you develop an allergy to the pollen near your town, for example, it is because your body interpreted that as like a virus and works towards fending it off. It is that attempt to rid your body of something it believes is toxic that causes allergic symptoms.

Some believe that one of the ways to reduce the number of allergies that a child has is just to allow them to be more exposed to the world around them when they are small. Instead of keeping them inside the home you could take them around those things that they might be at risk of becoming allergic to. If their body recognizes these substances as normal in the beginning than it might continue to think that way in the future.

If allergies run in your family and you're trying to help your child avoid the issues that come with them than you should speak to your doctor about what they recommend. If you're a busy parent and work professional you might not have time to take them to the park to expose them to more things that could become harmful. There are also many treatments out today to help allergy sufferers.

Common allergy symptoms include: itchy/watery eyes, sneezing, hives, runny nose, difficulty breathing, and rash. A life threatening type of reaction is called Anaphylaxis and requires immediate medical attention.