With allergies on the increase across the population, new figures show children aged birth to four are twice as likely to be admitted with an allergy than people aged 60 and over.
Boys are more at risk than girls within the under fives age group. Emergencies make up 24 per cent of allergy-related hospital admissions of boys, as opposed to 12 per cent of admissions of girls.
Between March 2013 and February 2014, 58 girls and 96 boys under five were admitted to hospital with an allergy for every 100,000 children in the 0-4 age bracket.
The pan-age average for the time period was 38 allergy-related admissions per 100,000 people, according to hospital admission statistics from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).
Admission rates for both genders decrease with age.
The data also showed that overall, the number of people admitted to hospital with allergic reactions has risen by almost eight per cent in one year.
The allergic reactions included in the data include food, pollen, skin reactions and allergic asthma.
According to Allergy UK, 40 per cent of British children now suffer from an allergy, though many grow out of them.
Allergies tend to run in families, and are also affected by environment. Children who have grown up on farms tend to have lower allergy and asthma rates.
Chair of the HSCIC, Kingsley Manning said, ‘This vital information on allergy admissions in England paints a clear picture for policy makers of the scale of hospital in patient care for these conditions.’
