Food allergies, we're told, are on the march. Last month, Newsweek featured a cover story with a child wearing a gas mask while holding a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in one hand, and a carton of milk in the other. Here's a sample from the somewhat overheated story: "It is hard to fathom how the joys of childhood--a peanut-butter sandwich, a warm chocolate-chip cookie, a cold glass of milk--can send a tiny body into battle mode. How just one bite can make the throat itch, the lips swell, the stomach clench in agony."

Of course, children with serious allergies need special precautions. But the media often pushes the panic button without educating or reassuring the majority of healthy families. Thus, knowing the following--especially for parents of healthy infants--might help ease the anxiety around food allergies:

In general, food allergies are uncommon and usually not very dangerous. Here's a surprising fact: The most common food allergy among children under 3 years old isn't to peanuts, fish, or shellfish. It's to milk. Roughly 2.5 percent (about 1 in 40 kids) are allergic, making the condition twice as common as egg allergy and three times as common as peanut allergies.