Hygiene hypothesis: ‘We used to play mud pies’

Ms Clark has noticed an increasing number of children being admitted to hospital with allergies to multiple food types.

She reckons one reason for this could be that children nowadays are growing up in too clean an environment.

She said: “It makes life more complicated when you’re allergic to several things and there has been an increase in children who fit that description.”

The specialist says that immune system illnesses such as asthma, eczema and allergies are more common in the western hemisphere.

She said: “These are more of a western sort of problem, people used to play in the garden with mud pies and there were not so many allergy sufferers.” Ms Clark noted that scientists remain unsure about the so-called “hygiene hypothesis”.

But the nurse, who treats children from infancy to age 16, said: “If children are around normal levels of bacteria growing up, then that could help their immune systems.”

Ms Clark also feels there is not enough awareness about the dangers milk and egg allergies can pose.