Introducing peanuts early reduces kids’ allergy risk: study

They cracked the case.

Kids exposed to peanut products during infancy, as early as 4 months old, are less likely to be allergic to peanuts later in life, according to a UK study published Tuesday in the journal NEJM Evidence.

Researchers from King’s College London observed over 500 children to age 12. They found that kids who were fed peanuts as a paste or puree until they turned 5 were 71% less likely to develop a peanut allergy than children who avoided peanuts.

Another study yielded similar results but only examined children up to the age of 5, which “wasn’t clear that that was necessarily enough time to prove long-term tolerance,” Michelle F. Huffaker, one of the authors of the new research and the director of translational medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, told the Washington Post. 

Both studies were sponsored and co-funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 

The latest research found that 15.4% of kids who avoided peanuts developed an allergy by age 12, compared to just 4.4% of those who were exposed to peanuts. 

“Today’s findings should reinforce parents’ and caregivers’ confidence that feeding their young children peanut products beginning in infancy according to established guidelines can provide lasting protection from peanut allergy,” NIAID director Jeanne Marrazzo said in a statement.

“If widely implemented,” she added, “this safe, 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.”

Gideon Lack, lead investigator and professor of pediatric allergy at King’s College London, told CNN that he was not surprised by the findings. 

“Peanut allergy develops very early in most children between six and 12 months of life,” Lack said. “If you want to prevent a disease this needs to be done before the disease develops.”

“This biological phenomenon is based on an immunological principle known as oral tolerance induction,” he continued. “We have known for many decades that young mice or other experimental animals who are fed foods such as egg or milk or peanut cannot develop these allergies later.”

Though parents have been advised to give their infants peanuts, many still worry about exposing their kids to the legume, a recent study found.

Guidelines say peanut butter can be spread thinly, or mixed with breastmilk, formula or puree. Health officials warn that whole peanuts or chopped peanuts can cause choking hazards.

“There are a number of options, but plain old peanut butter mixed in warm water can work for a 4-month-old — it doesn’t need to be anything fancier than that,” study author Huffaker said.