Parents should avoid using infant wipes and thoroughly wash soap off their babies to reduce the risk of childhood food allergies, scientists have warned.

Researchers have hailed a “major advance” in understanding what causes the complaints after tests revealed links between skin damage and intolerance to certain foods.

They suggest that an increasing failure by parents to rinse away soap after washing their babies is contributing to the rise in childhood food allergies.

The top layer of skin is made of lipids, types of fat, which can be disrupted by soap and soapy chemicals in wipes, the team at Northwestern University found.

If a child already carries genes which predisposes them to altered skin absorbency, contact with these chemicals can then heighten risk that comes with exposure to food allergens.

The UK has some of the highest prevalence of allergic conditions in the world, with over 20 per cent of people affected by one more disorder, while hospital admissions for anaphylaxis - a potentially fatal allergic reaction - has risen more than 615 per cent in the last 26 years.

Around eight per cent of British children are thought to suffer from a food allergy.

Published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, the “recipe” for childhood food allergies was identified by comparing clinical data with genetic mutations which occur in humans and experiments on neonatal mice involving allergen exposure.