New research shows that giving peanuts to kids as early as four months old can significantly lower their chances of becoming allergic to them, protecting them for a long time, even into their teenage years.
About 2% of children in Western countries have peanut allergies. This finding could make peanut allergies much less common.
Early Peanut Introduction: A Game-Changer in Allergy Prevention
For decades, parents have been told not to give peanuts to their babies, which has caused a lot of fear about introducing peanuts too early. That being said, a new study by Professor Gideon Lack from King's College London questions this long-held advice.
The study published in NEJM Evidence shows that eating peanuts regularly from birth to age five may decrease the chance of getting a peanut allergy by 81%. Prof. Lack said that parents are afraid to give peanuts to young children because they have been told for decades to stay away from them.
He stressed that there is substantial proof that introducing peanuts to babies early on in life builds long-lasting tolerance and keeps kids from getting allergies well into adolescence. He thinks that this easy change will make a big difference in lowering peanut allergies in the future.
A Long-Term Study Confirms that the Benefits Will Last
The LEAP-Trio study (Learning Early About Peanut Allergy) tracked children who participated in the original LEAP research to see what happened after the first results. In the first part, half of the 640 participants consumed peanuts every day from birth to age five, while the other half did not eat any.
At the end of this time, only 1.9% of the kids in the peanut group had developed an allergy, while 13.7% of the kids in the avoidance group did.
In the second part, the researchers looked at 508 of these kids again when they were teenagers (on average age 13). They found that only 4.4% of people who ate peanuts as babies got an allergy, while 15.4% didn't eat peanuts as babies did.
This means that exposure to peanuts early in life cut the chance of getting an allergy by 71% by the time a person was a teenager.
Practical Recommendations for Parents and Impacts on Global Health
Researchers say that children should start eating peanuts safely when they are developmentally ready for solid foods when they are four to six months old. The peanuts should be given safely, like a soft paste or peanut snack, so they don't choke.
Co-lead investigator Professor George Du Toit from King's College London said the intervention is safe and successful and can be used with babies as young as four months. He said that when it comes to growth, the baby should be ready to start weaning and that peanuts should be given as a soft paste or peanut puffs.
People allergic to peanuts can have severe reactions that could be life-threatening. This causes a lot of stress for those who are allergic and their families.
The results of this study show that introducing peanuts early could prevent more than 100,000 new cases of peanut allergy worldwide every year. This would change the way public health views allergy prevention.
With this evidence, introducing peanuts to babies early on is a hopeful and helpful way to lower the number of people allergic to peanuts. This simple change to your food will protect you for a long time, making future generations healthier and reducing the costs of treating allergies.
Read also: FDA Grants Approval to Groundbreaking Drug for Food Allergy Mitigation: Here's What You Need to Know
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