Exposing babies under four months to peanuts ‘reduces risk of deadly allergies’

FEEDING peanuts to children under five reduces allergy risk by 71 percent, according to one study.

Around one in 50 British children is allergic to peanuts and rates are rising.

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Reactions can be fatal and can be triggered by even foods that contain only small amounts of nuts.

Experts from King’s College London found that exposing babies and young children to peanuts consistently from a young age helps protect them.

Professor George Du Toit, co-principal investigator at King’s, said: “This is a safe and highly effective intervention that can be started as early as four months of age.”

The study, published in the journal NEJM Evidence, involved 640 children divided into two groups.

This Simple Strategy Could Prevent Thousands of Allergy Cases Every Year

Dr Jeanne MarrazzoUS National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Children in one group gradually increased their peanut consumption from birth to age five, and the second group ate no peanuts during the same period.

It found that only 4% of the group who ate nuts were allergic by age 12, compared to 15% of those who didn’t eat them.

Professor Du Toit calculated that eating peanuts in childhood reduced the chances of being allergic in adolescence by 71%.

He said young people can start eating peanut butter or puff pastries when they are old enough to give up milk and start eating solid foods.

Scientists believe that safely exposing the immune system to small amounts of an allergen can teach the body not to cause a reaction.

Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo of the American National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which funded the study, said: “These findings should reinforce parents’ confidence that feeding their young children peanut products can provide long-lasting protection against peanut allergy. .

“If widely implemented, this simple strategy could prevent thousands of cases every year.”