We Were Wrong About Not Feeding Peanuts to Infants
Image: Donnie Ray Jones/Flickr
For years, parents have been told to withhold peanut products from their children until the age of three. In a total flip-flop, the NIH has issued new guidelines recommending that babies be fed peanuts early in their lives to prevent the onset of dangerous allergies.
It now appears that the peanut guidelines put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in 2000 were a colossal mistake. At the time, parents were told to refrain from feeding peanuts and peanut products to their children until the age of three, to avoid life-threatening allergic reactions—but this injunction seems to have backfired. Over the past two decades, the prevalence of peanut allergies in the United States has quadrupled, growing from 0.4 percent in 1997 to 1.4 percent in 2008, and to more than two percent in 2010. It has become the leading cause of food-related anaphylaxis and death in the United States.
A 2015 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine offered some of the most compelling evidence that early exposure to peanuts is critical for avoiding allergies later on. In a clinical trial involving more than 600 infants, NIH researchers found that early exposure led to an 81 percent reduction in the onset of peanut allergies among infants at high risk.
In light of these findings, an expert panel sponsored by the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has issued updated clinical guidelines to help parents and health care providers understand when and how to introduce peanuts and peanut products to their infants. The new guidelines will be added as an addendum to the 2010 Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy in the United States , and are set to be published in six scientific journals, including the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology . Here’s a quick summary:
- Infants deemed at high risk of developing peanut allergies (i.e. they already have severe eczema, egg allergy or both) should have peanut-containing foods introduced into their diets at an age as early as four to six months. This should be done in consultation with a health care provider.
- Infants with mild or moderate eczema (a set of chronic skin conditions caused by inflammation, and a condition linked to food allergies) should have peanut-containing foods introduced into their diets around 6 months of age.
- Infants without eczema or any food allergy should have peanut-containing foods freely introduced into their diets.
The NIAID says that all infants, regardless of which category they fit into, should start solid foods before they’re introduced to peanut-containing foods.
This should serve as a reminder that early exposure to potential allergens, such as peanuts, dust mites, and various pathogens, is critical to developing a tolerant and robust immune system, and a key step in preventing allergies from developing later on. An allergic reaction is basically the body’s immune system freaking out in the presence of what it believes to be a toxic substance, and it triggers a disproportionate counterattack that can sometimes be fatal (i.e. anaphylaxis). Early exposure “trains” the immune system into understanding what’s friendly, and what’s dangerous.
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Original article by George Dvorsky in Gizmodo
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We see this kind of stutter-step all the time. First something is OK, then it's bad, then it's OK...
I think the phenomenon is another expression of the "click-bait problem". An author has a better chance of getting an article published if it's sensational, and "Traditional method is bad for kids, study says!" is an easy way to be sensational.
Parents want to be in the forefront on what's best for their kids, so they will read anything with that click-bait headline.
Did the peanut interdiction ever pass the smell test? Not really. Kids have been munching on peanuts since forever. Peanut butter!!
This should serve as a reminder that early exposure to potential allergens, such as peanuts, dust mites, and various pathogens, is critical to developing a tolerant and robust immune system, and a key step in preventing allergies from developing later on. An allergic reaction is basically the body’s immune system freaking out in the presence of what it believes to be a toxic substance, and it triggers a disproportionate counterattack that can sometimes be fatal (i.e. anaphylaxis). Early exposure “trains” the immune system into understanding what’s friendly, and what’s dangerous.
Basically... the peanut interdiction should have never been published.
The whole peanut allergy was imo an overreach from the medical field. I never understood why people didn't quite get the immune system and how it works. You build up your immune system - that's what makes it stronger and you less susceptible to sickness, allergy or otherwise. I always gave me boys foods in small doses when they were younger. The one thing I was a little freaky about was the germs in public places.
Funny story, when my youngest son was around 7 or 8 we were at the mall or somewhere there are public trashcans (can't recall), he threw something in the trash and became upset because he had touched the flap on the lid. He started screaming about germs. I had to rush him to the bathroom so he could wash his hands. When we came out my oldest looked at me and rolled his eyes and blamed me for creating a germaphobe. I'm happy to report he has no such aversions to germs these days as is evident when I walk in his room.
... creating a germaphobe.
Kids are cool!
Behind the funny story, though, is the question of where he "learned" about germs...
ME! hahahahaha
A consequence of where I work coupled with knowing just enough to get me in trouble. I'm far more wiser on the subject nowadays.
I'm glad kids are being encouraged to eat peanuts now. I always wondered what the advisories were based on. My entire family has an addiction to everything peanuts-almost their own food group!
I hated peanut butter when I was a kid. Still do.
But give me a bag of peanuts... and they're gone. Big bag.
I was a horrible mom. I seriously never heard of this anti-peanut thing before. I'd let the infants lick my finger (or nipple) with a dab of peanut butter. I like most nuts and bring my kids up with nuts. Peanuts, cashews, almonds, walnuts, Brazil nuts, pecans and pistachios. My girls have always been surrounded by nuts.
Do you have any idea how many double ententes there are in this one short post?
LOL
I just noticed this article. (Being on the other side of the world from most of you means that I miss a lot of articles that are pushed off the Home Page within a few hours.
My parents must have started me with peanut butter at a very early age because I have no allergies whatsoever. To this day I have loved peanut butter and eat some almost every day, usually on toast with strawberry jam at breakfast, but sometimes in sandwiches later on in the day.