Doctors said for years that infants should avoid peanuts.
Allergies to peanuts and other foods dropped significantly after the introduction of new guidelines, according to a study published on Oct. 20.
Just 0.45 percent of young children from 2017 through 2019 had an allergy to peanuts, according to researchers with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s allergy and immunology division and other institutions. That was down from 0.79 percent from 2012 through 2014.
“Our results support ongoing efforts to encourage early food introduction to prevent food allergy,” Dr. Stanislaw J. Gabryszewski, an attending physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and one of the researchers, said in a video presentation that was released alongside the study by the journal Pediatrics.
Food allergies, which develop when a person comes into contact with a protein in food that their immune system identifies as harmful, are the most common cause of severe allergic shock in children. The shock can in rare instances lead to death.
The researchers analyzed diagnosis codes and other information in electronic health records from 48 facilities, including 17 privately owned pediatric offices. They looked at the incidence of allergies among children from Sept. 1, 2012, through Aug. 31, 2014, before new guidelines were introduced; from Sept. 1, 2015 through Aug. 31, 2017, after the introduction; and from Sept. 1, 2017, to Aug. 31, 2019, after the guidelines were updated.
For years, doctors and groups—including the American Academy of Pediatrics, which runs Pediatrics—recommended not giving children peanuts or peanut products early in life. The academy said in 2008 there was no evidence delaying peanuts and other foods prevented allergies.
It was not until after a trial called Learning Early About Peanut Allergy that found early introduction of peanuts reduced the risk of peanut allergy that organizations said, in 2015, that infants at high risk of allergies should consume products such as peanuts and eggs early in life.
In 2017, federal officials broadened that guidance to more children. In 2021, experts said it applied to all kids.
