May 29, 2024 – Picky eating in children can come out of nowhere. Parents know that sooner or later, unexpectedly, a baby's favorite food might be added to the list of rejected foods to be spit out, flung, or met with the announcement, “I'm not hungry.”
For parents who’ve rigorously introduced their children to peanuts within the hope of stopping a peanut allergy, there may be a risk that picky eating will negate this prevention strategy.
But latest research shows that if a baby was exposed to peanuts as a baby, toddler and preschooler but later modified their food regimen, all just isn’t lost. Those who ate peanuts repeatedly as much as age 5 were 71% less more likely to develop a peanut allergy at age 12 than children who avoided peanuts completely before age 5. new insights published this week within the magazine NEJM Evidence.
Estimated 2 out of 100 children within the USA suffer from a peanut allergy, which might sometimes result in life-threatening symptoms.
The latest report “should increase the confidence of parents and caregivers that feeding their young children peanut products starting in infancy according to established guidelines can provide lasting protection against peanut allergy,” said Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in a opinion“If implemented at scale, this safe and simple strategy could prevent tens of thousands of cases of peanut allergy among the 3.6 million children born in the United States each year.”
The study is a follow-up to an earlier investigation generally known as the LEAP (Learning Early About Peanut Allergy) study. It included about 500 children from that original study who were randomly assigned to either repeatedly expose peanuts of their food regimen between the ages of 4 and 11 months or avoid them completely until age 5. The original study linked early exposure to peanuts to an 81% reduced risk of developing a peanut allergy by age 5.
For this follow-up study, children were asked to eat the equivalent of greater than 20 peanuts in a controlled setting. Intake was steadily increased to watch allergic reactions. The average age of the adolescents on the time was 13 years. The researchers found that:
- Among those that had not eaten peanuts before the age of 5, 15% suffered from a peanut allergy.
- Among those that repeatedly ate peanuts as much as the age of 5, 4% had a peanut allergy.
These latest study results are “clear evidence that early introduction of peanuts into babies’ diets can provide long-term prevention of peanut allergy,” says a Summary from King's College London, where the team's lead researchers work.
National guidelines for peanut consumption in children have modified over time. The once prevailing belief that peanuts shouldn’t be given to children at a young age has been modified. Today, peanut consumption is beneficial from as early as 4 months of age, when some babies are already beginning to transition to solid foods. Current guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics vary and are based on an infant's known allergies or eczema symptoms.