Advice to feed babies peanuts early and often helped 60,000 kids avoid allergies, study finds
Ten years after a landmark study, feeding peanut products to young babies has proven beneficial. prevent development New research in treating life-threatening allergies finds that this change makes a big difference in the real world.
Nearly 60,000 children were prevented from developing peanut allergy after the guidance, first published in 2015, disrupted medical practice by recommending that the allergen be introduced to babies from 4 months.
“This is extraordinary, isn’t it?” D., an allergist and researcher at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and author of a study. David Hill said: Published Monday In the medical journal Pediatrics. Hill and colleagues analyzed electronic health records from dozens of pediatric practices to track food allergy diagnoses in young children before, during and after the guidelines were published.
“I can actually come to you today and say that if we had not implemented this public health effort, there would be fewer children with food allergies today,” he added.
Researchers found that peanut allergies in children ages 0 to 3 decreased by more than 27% after the guidelines for high-risk children were first published in 2015, and by more than 40% after the recommendations were expanded in 2017.
This effort has yet to reduce the overall increase in food allergies in the United States in recent years. Approximately 8% of children are affected, and more than 2% of them have a peanut allergy.
Peanut allergy occurs when the body’s immune system mistakenly identifies proteins in peanuts as harmful and releases chemicals that trigger allergic symptoms such as hives, respiratory symptoms, and sometimes life-threatening anaphylaxis.
For decades, doctors have recommended that children stop introducing peanuts and other foods that can trigger allergies until age 3. But in 2015, Gideon Lack of King’s College London published a groundbreaking paper. Learning about Peanut Allergy Early, or LEAP, trial.
Lack and colleagues showed that introducing peanut products in infancy reduced the risk of developing food allergies in the future by more than 80%. Subsequent analyzes showed that protection continued into adolescence in approximately 70% of children.
The study immediately sparked new guidelines encouraging early introduction of peanuts; but their implementation has been slow.
Surveys reported that only 29 percent of pediatricians and 65 percent of allergists followed the expanded guidance published in 2017.
Confusion and uncertainty about the best way to introduce peanuts early in life caused the delay, according to a commentary accompanying the study. Initially, medical professionals and parents questioned whether the practice would be adopted outside of tightly controlled clinical settings.
Pediatric allergist Dr. from Northwestern University. The commentary, led by Ruchi Gupta, noted that data for the analysis came from a subset of participating practice sites and may not be representative of the entire U.S. pediatric population.
However, the authors concluded that the new research offers “promising evidence that early allergen application can not only be adopted but also produce a measurable impact.”
Advocates for the 33 million people with food allergies in the United States welcomed signs that early promotion of peanut products is becoming more widespread.
“This research reinforces what we already know and highlights a meaningful opportunity to reduce the incidence and prevalence of peanut allergy nationwide,” said Sung Poblete, executive director of the nonprofit group Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE).
Hill said the new study highlights existing guidance, updated in 2021, that calls for introducing peanuts and other major food allergens for four to six months without prior screening or testing. Parents should consult their pediatrician with any questions they have.
“It doesn’t need to be a lot of food; peanut butter, milk-based yogurt, soy-based yogurt and tree crushes need to have little taste,” he said. “These are really good ways to allow the immune system to be safely exposed to these allergenic foods.”
Tiffany Leon, 36, a registered dietitian and FARE executive in Maryland, introduced peanuts and other allergens to her own sons, James, 4, and Cameron, 2, at an early age.
Leon’s mother said she was initially shocked by the advice to feed babies such foods before age 3. But Leon explained how science has changed.
“As a dietitian, I follow evidence-based recommendations,” she said. “When someone said to me, ‘This is how it’s done now, these are the new rules,’ I thought, ‘Okay, this is what we’re going to do.'”
——-
The Associated Press receives support from the Health and Science Department, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. AP is solely responsible for all content.
