Almost certainly not. Because premature babies' digestive tracts are immature at birth, parents often wonder whether these children are at higher risk of food allergies or other related conditions. A recent large-scale study of infants born in Manitoba, Alberta, Canada in 1995 compared babies who were born prematurely or with low birth weight to those who were born at term or with normal weight to try to discover whether these two factors were related to later development of food allergies.
Researchers also looked at other risk factors for food allergy -- especially whether parents or siblings also had food allergies or asthma and factors potentially associated with the Hygiene Hypothesis, like number of siblings and whether the child lived in an urban or rural setting.
In comparing birth weights, researchers in this large-scale study found that no birth weight or gestational age infant -- heavy, light, premature, on-time, or post-term -- was statistically more or less likely to develop food allergies. This is consistent with older studies about premature babies and food allergies. Factors that were associated with later development of food allergies were the same as had been identified in other studies: a mother with a history of food allergies or asthma and a higher socioeconomic status.
Source:
Liem, Joel J., et al. "The Risk of Developing Food Allergy in Premature Or Low Birth-Weight Children." Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. May 2007 119(5): 1203-09.
