A new study has found that introducing peanuts into infants' diets within the first year of their lives could reduce their risk of developing a peanut allergy in later childhood.
The research was published online on Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study followed 640 children in the United Kingdom who were deemed at-risk for developing peanut allergies due to severe eczema or egg allergies. The children were between the ages of 4 and 11 months, and were followed by researchers for five years.
These children were divided into two groups based on results gained from a pin-prick allergy test for peanuts. One group contained 85 percent of the children, none of whom showed a reaction to the peanut pin-prick. The other 15 percent had minor reactions, showing that they were in the initial phase of developing a peanut allergy. Children in both groups were then randomly given assignments to either avoid peanuts completely or eat about two grams of peanut protein three times a week.
In the group that showed no reaction to peanuts at the beginning of the study, 13.7 percent who avoided peanuts completely ended up developing a peanut allergy. In the group that ate peanuts regularly, only 1.9 percent developed an allergy.
Of the group that had a reaction to peanuts at the beginning, 35.3 percent of children who avoided peanuts developed a full-blown allergy, as compared to 10.6 percent who ate peanuts regularly.
These results show that eating peanuts regularly kept the immune system from becoming unduly sensitized to the nut, a process called primary allergy prevention. Consistent exposure also stopped the immune system from developing an allergy after it had already become sensitized, which is known as secondary prevention.
"We have had a whole ethos within the practice of pediatrics and pediatric allergy that the way to avoid any allergy was avoidance," Gideon Lack, professor of pediatric allergy at King's College London and the senior author of the study, told The Wall Street Journal. "At least with respect to peanuts, avoidance may actually worsen the problem."
The researchers are currently following the children who consumed peanuts to see if they would remain without allergies if they stopped eating peanuts for an extended period. The results of that follow-up are expected to be published later this year.
Other researchers say that there are a variety of factors at work in allergy development, including hygiene levels and socioeconomic status, so the results cannot yet be considered completely clear. Doctors emphasize that recommendations for parents will only come after more research has been done and safety guidelines measured and confirmed.
Professor Lack also told the BBC that children considered at high-risk for developing allergies "need to be evaluated, have skin-prick testing and dietary advice, [before], in most cases, early introduction of peanut." The children in the study were all at relatively low-risk, and the research was done in a highly controlled environment.
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