Health experts in OZ are raising concern over childhood allergy rates have gone up and experts are now broadening their efforts to combat the mysterious condition.

According to Dr Ray Mullins, a Canberra-based allergy expert, and president of the Australian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA), of children born this year about 15,000 would develop a potentially fatal food allergy before they turned eligible for attending school.

Allergies to peanuts and tree nuts were the most rapidly growing problems and no cause was known for this. These allergies affected three to six per cent of children under the age of three.

Dr Mullins said, "This translates to 65,000 little kids with food allergy before they reach school age, including 25,000 now with peanut or tree nut allergies. On current birth rates, another 15,000 kids born every year will develop food allergy in the first few years of life.

Dr Mullins stated that a WA-based study stated that 80 per cent of schools had at least one student at risk of a severe food allergy called anaphylaxis.

He also added that lots of work was done to ascertain reasons for the growing problem but a lot was needed.

An online food allergy training course targeted at childcare workers, teachers and other people who care for children was launched on Wednesday by ASCIA.