Patrick Ow and his family immigrated to Australia in 2007. His first three children, who are Malaysian-born, have no allergies.
But their two youngest children, who are both conceived and born in Australia, have developed allergies to all nut and milk products.
Mr Ow said it was a "really weird" concept for their extended family to understand because it didn't run in their family.
"We do not have history of, in our family, in both of our families (to) food allergies, and we are the first in our own respective families to have allergies," he said.
"When we told our families about it they were very surprised and very shocked about this whole allergy. Because we (people in Malaysia) don't, we are not exposed to them, this kind of allergy information in Malaysia, so basically I'm not sure whether they understand the seriousness of allergies as is in Melbourne or in Australia, because it's something very foreign to them."
Mr Ow's personal theory is that Australia is too sanitised, which is why his Australia-born children are so sensitive.
"What we think was that it could be the hygiene. We could also think about the environment and I think the first born (in Australia) has more reaction to the second one."
It’s a question confounding researchers across the world, so why are food allergies on the rise?
Patrick Ow talking to host Jenny Brockie. (SBS Insight)
Katie Allen, who works at Melbourne's Murdoch Children's Research Institute () and the , told Insight the growth in allergies is most apparent for those who've come from a developing country.
Through testing of 5000 one-year-olds, a by MCRI found that the offspring of East Asian born parents were more prone to allergies, as opposed to those who have migrated from places like Europe.
"So in our study we found that Asian parents have much a lower rate of allergy themselves than Australian parents, but children who are born from Asian parents in Australia are three times more likely to have food allergy"
Ms Allen said that is why the researchers think that when it comes to understanding allergies, family history may not be as significant as a factor.
"It does get back to this concept of you know the migration effect and it's a very profound effect that we've described and others also that people who live in developing countries that come to a developed country take on the attendant risk of where they come to … that's why we think family history may not be as important for food allergy."
"So an Australian born child has a 10 percent rate of food allergy in our health nuts cohort. The children of Asian born parents, 30 percent of them had food allergy."
For Patrick's family, while his household is not completely egg or nut free, he does hope that his youngest two won't feel excluded during meal times and will continue to monitor their reaction as they develop.
"It is risky but we have to try to see what else they can eat and extend that they can eat. I'm very cautious that I don't want to exclude them in later life and I just want to make sure that they can live a normal life hopefully and to be able to differentiate different foods that they can eat."
Patrick is a guest on tonight’s episode of at 8.30pm on SBS ONE which explores allergies, asking why are more people being diagnosed with food allergies and is a cure a realistic possibility? #InsightSBS
