According to new research led by the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and recently published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, some children with milk allergies can safely consume milk and dairy products every day. As reported on by Dairy Herd Magazine, the study found that many children who had taken part in earlier research led by Hopkins Children’s and were given increasingly higher doses of milk over time gradually retrained their immune systems to tolerate milk and other dairy products.

All of the 18 children that were followed-up with were able to safely consume milk products at home, and the findings suggest that to maintain this, milk and other dairy products may need to be eaten on a regular basis. Reactions to dairy were common, but were mild and lessened over time.

After several months of consuming milk at home, 13 of the children showed no reaction after drinking twice the highest tolerated dose during the study’s first round. Some participants were not able to increase their consumption, but continued eating dairy on a daily basis with minimal reactions.

Sensitivity to milk was also measured with traditional skin prick testing, which showed gradual decreases in reactions over time.

Children and their parents also kept daily logs of milk and dairy consumption and recorded symptoms, such as hives, abdominal pain, sneezing and cough. During the first three months, consumption of milk triggered reactions 49 percent of the time, with some children experiencing as few as two reactions for every 100 doses of milk consumed. The figure dropped to 23 percent in the subsequent three months, and some children had no reactions at all.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three million U.S. children have food allergies; milk allergy is the most prevalent. Exposing milk and dairy products to children with an allergy should be done only under medical supervision.