Children who eat peanuts at an early age may prevent peanut allergies

The No Nuts Moms Group website lists some of the young people who have died from food allergies — many from peanut allergy — going back to 1986. The lengthy list is a sad reminder that a peanut allergy can cause a severe and sometimes deadly allergic reaction. Parents who have a child who is allergic to peanuts do many things to keep him or her out of harm’s way. A study published online today in The New England Journal of Medicine offers some hope for parents of infants who may be headed toward a peanut allergy. That hope is peanuts. For the study, an international team of researchers recruited infants who had an egg allergy or eczema, an allergic disorder that affects the skin. Both are indicators that a child is prone to a peanut allergy. The children were randomly divided into two groups. The parents in one group were asked to make sure their children didn’t eat any peanuts, peanut butter, or other peanut-based products until age five. Parents in the other group were asked to give their children a peanut-based snack called Bamba or peanut butter three times a week until age five. The results were surprising and dramatic. A peanut allergy developed in 1.9% of children who ate Bamba or peanut butter, compared with 13.7% of those who didn’t eat peanuts. One explanation for this difference is that the children who ate peanuts early developed what is called immune tolerance to them. Their young immune systems adapted to the proteins in peanuts so that the...
Source: New Harvard Health Information - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Asthma and Allergies Children's Health Diet and Weight Loss Healthy Eating peanut allergy Source Type: news