Egg allergies are far more common in children than adults, and children will often outgrow this allergy by the time they are five years old. One of the most common allergies in children; an allergy to eggs is most often to one of four proteins in the egg white however there are three antigens in the egg yolks that can cause a reaction as well.

For most children they are usually allergic to one of the other, meaning that the child that is allergic to a protein in the egg white usually can tolerate egg yolks and vice versa although there are a few that may be allergic to both. It seems that egg yolk allergies are more common in adults than most food allergies, which are normally rare in adults. About 50% of children that have egg allergies will outgrow them by age 17 with 45% of those outgrowing their allergy by the age of five.

Those with egg allergies must use special care since some vaccines including the flu vaccine are made using eggs. Flu vaccines are incubated in eggs and since the amount of egg content may vary between vaccines an allergist may need to test a patient for their sensitivity to flu vaccines to see if they will be able to tolerate it. Egg proteins can also be found in other vaccines such as MMR and yellow fever, the amount of egg protein is thought to be small enough that most people with egg allergies can tolerate them.

There are a number of egg replacers on the market for cooking, so replacing eggs in your recipes will not be difficult, what can be a challenge is finding all the different egg sources on the labels of foods you buy. There is a number of different hidden sources of eggs and these are terms you will need to become familiar with and avoid.

Egg allergy symptoms are similar to those of other food allergies, hives, eczema, runny nose, itchy eyes, nausea, vomiting and in severe cases anaphylactic shock. For those that have a difficulty breathing an epi- pin may be prescribed for them so that a potentially life threatening anaphylactic reaction can be avoided.