More kids in the US suffered from allergies in 2007, according to a report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings were collected from the National Health Interview Survey of about 9,000 children and the National Hospital Discharge Survey of around 270,000 inpatients.

Overall, 3.8 percent of boys and 4.1 percent of girls had food allergies, the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics found. Approximately 3 million children under age 18 years (3.9%) were reported to have a food or digestive allergy in the previous 12 months in 2007, which translates as an increase by 18 percent from 1997.

The most common allergens were milk, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and eggs. These products accounted for an estimated 90 percent of allergy cases in children under age 19. Symptoms of allergies include runny nose; sore, red and itchy eyes; diarrhea, sickness and vomiting; skin reactions (such as swelling and itching, eczema and flushing) and wheezing or shortness of breath.

The bad part is that kids with food allergies can also develop other serious conditions. More exactly, 29 percent suffer from asthma, 27 percent have skin allergies or eczema and over 30 percent confront with respiratory allergies. These findings should be compared to the 12 percent, 8 percent and 9 percent respectively among children who don’t suffer from food allergies.

Unfortunately, the researchers have yet to find what has caused the rise, although they are certain that both a doubling in peanut allergies (revealed by previous studies) and a longer than ten years ago recovery time from milk and egg allergies need to be factored in.

However, parents are encouraged to rush to the doctor’s office as soon as their kids experience symptoms of allergies, as they could turn deadly if not treated in time. A study in the journal Pediatrics made by the Food and Drug Administration found that although nearly 21 percent of children have some food-related problem sometime in their life, only 8 percent of all children see a doctor.

“I would never ignore a rash. At a minimum, contact a pediatrician,” said Hugh Sampson, MD, director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.