HOUSTON (KIAH) Peanuts, milk, and fish sticks may be delicious to one child, but deadly to another.

In 2021, just over one-quarter of children in the United States had at least one allergic condition.

That’s according to a recent study by the CDC. It also shows Black children were more likely than White and Hispanic children to have a food allergy.

Researchers are now trying to figure out why.

“When I started my career, we did not see nearly this many children with food allergy, and now it’s the bulk of our clinical practices,” said Dr. Leonard Bacharier, pediatrics professor, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital, who is taking part of in a nationwide study, the largest and only one to date focused on this particular subject.

The study hopes to recruit 200 pregnant women/babies as part of the overall enrollment goal of 2,500 children across the 10 study sites throughout the United States. The participants will be monitored from pregnancy through at least three years old.

Researchers hope that if they start tracking children at such a age, they may be able to explain why there has been a rapid rise in food allergies over the past 25 years. According to the CDC, food allergies in children increased by 50% from 1997 to 2011.