Changed advice on preventing peanut allergies

“Avoid peanuts” may have been exactly the wrong advice to give parents with babies susceptible to developing an allergy to them. A new study suggests that regularly exposing at risk infants to small amounts before they are one year old, may actually help prevent the development of an allergic response.

Food allergies doubled

Food allergies in Canada have doubled over the last 10 years with eight per cent of children allergic to some foods and 1.4 per cent allergic to peanuts. In some cases, the allergy is so bad that it is life-threatening. While peanut allergies are increasing in western countries, they are also appearing in Africa and Asia.

Children between 4 and 11 months old who already had severe eczema, egg allergy or both were divided into two groups for this study. One group showed a small sensitivity to peanut extract and the other did not. Some in each group were not given any peanuts, others were given small amounts regularly.

Avoiding peanuts increased risk of allergy

“What they found was that if they ate peanut on a regular basis, they were much less likely to become allergic at five years of age,” says Dr. Paul Keith, an allergist and associate professor at McMaster University in Ontario. “The group that avoided peanut had about a one in five chance of becoming allergic, whereas (in) the group that kept eating it, it was extremely rare.

Listen “It’s significant because we thought that early interdiction of foods would be helpful, but this really shows that if you’re not allergic at that young age and you introduce it regularly you may prevent becoming allergic. And the advice to avoid these highly-allergenic foods may be misguided,” says Keith.

Caution advised

That said, parents are advised to proceed with caution. Keith suggests giving babies miniscule amounts of allergenic foods, preferably baked or cooked, since these are less likely to provoke a reaction.  Only one food should be introduced at a time and the children closely monitored for any reaction. Reactions should be immediately reported to doctors and the food stopped until an allergist can provide further advice.