. Now the US Food and Drug Administration has approved the first commercial product, called Hello, Peanut!, to help inform the public that early peanut introduction and regular consumption can reduce the risk of peanut allergy in young children.
After which maintenance packets are recommended for use up to three times a week.
It showed that high-risk children who regularly consumed peanut in infancy had far fewer peanut allergies by age 5 than their counterparts who avoided peanut over the same span of time.
Infants who have severe eczema or egg allergy are considered at high-risk of developing a peanut allergy. By offering peanut early in life – between 4-6 months of age – and continuing with regular consumption, we can prevent the onset of peanut allergy in many of these children. High-risk children should see their doctor before parents introduce peanut protein in any form. If the test is negative, age-appropriate peanut products can be given at home.
So do parents need a product like Hello, Peanut for children? Parents can introduce peanut protein using creamy peanut butter.
New mothers could help protect their children from developing allergies by eating peanuts while they are a breastfeeding, a new study suggests.
In the latest evidence to advocate that youngsters should be exposed to nuts early in life, researchers in Canada found children were five times less likely to develop an allergy if their mothers had eaten nuts before weaning and introduced nuts before one year old.
The allergy epidemic is growing annually in the UK, with number of sufferers increasing by five per cent each year.
Rates of peanut allergy have risen in recent decades and one in 50 school-age children in the UK is now affected by the condition.
In the new study 342 children were followed up from birth to aged seven to see if they had developed a peanut allergy. Where mothers had eaten peanuts during breastfeeding as well as introducing nuts before 12 months, just 1.7 per cent of children developed an allergy, compared to the overall incidence of 9.4 per cent.
“If parents are concerned about the introduction of peanut into their infant’s diet, and specifically those who have existing allergy such as eczema, asthma or a food allergy, it is important that it is done in a safe and age appropriate way, for example not giving an infant whole peanuts as they pose a choking risk.
A recent study has found that eating peanuts while breastfeeding may protect their newborn from developing allergies later in life.
If mothers did one but not the other, the rate of allergic reactions was ‘significantly higher.’
Symptoms of an allergy to peanuts can range from mild – such as itchy skin and a runny nose – to severe and life-threatening, as the airways can close up when the body goes into anaphylactic shock.
Recent studies have shown that avoiding the nuts during infancy increases the risk of allergy.
Dr Meghan Azad from the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba in Winnipeg said that this study is the first to consider maternal peanut consumption while breastfeeding together with the timing of peanut introduction to newborns.
The team analysed data from an allergy and asthma study that tracked 342 children born in Winnipeg and Vancouver in 1995 from birth to the age of 15.
The findings indicated that the children whose mothers consumed peanuts while breastfeeding and directly introduced peanuts before 12 months had the lowest incidence of reactions to peanuts at 1.7 percent.
The rates jumped to 15.1 percent for those whose mothers ate peanuts while breast-feeding but delayed the introduction of peanuts after a year.
Dr Azad noted that the study was limited by focusing exclusively on children at high risk of developing allergies.
Food allergies are when the body’s immune system reacts unusually when eating particular items, and having an aversion to peanuts is one of the most common types.
Sufferers risk a runny nose, skin reactions, itching, digestive problems, tightening of the throat, and shortness of breath, if they consume the food.
However, researchers have discovered that peanut allergies could be prevented if mothers consumed them during breastfeeding.
We found that the introduction of peanuts before 12 months of age was associated with a reduced risk of peanut sensitisation by school age.
The Canadian study found that exposing children to them early in life could stop them suffering.
“We found that the introduction of peanuts before 12 months of age was associated with a reduced risk of peanut sensitisation by school age, particularly among children whose mothers consumed peanuts while breastfeeding,” said Dr Tracey Pitt, lead study author from the Humber River Hospital in Ontario.
The idea is that this will desensitise their immune system.
Allergy rates are on the rise in the UK, with one in every hundred people thought to suffer from a peanut allergy.
This is because they grow underground, as opposed to on trees like almonds.
Recent studies have found that peanut allergies can be prevented in a high percentage of cases by introducing children to peanut-containing foods while they are still infants.
The revelation was made possible, in part, thanks to the resources provided by the National Peanut Board (NPB), an industry-funded board, established through a research, promotion and information program at the request of peanut producers.
The board helped to fund a study called Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) that was conducted by researchers at the United Kingdom’s Kings College London.
In the study, up to 86 percent of the infants with a high risk (those with severe eczema, egg allergy, or both) for developing a peanut allergy who ate peanut foods between the ages of 4 and 11 months developed a protective factor that reduced their risk of having the allergy.
During LEAP-On, the children from the LEAP study who were exposed to peanut foods at an early age were not given peanut foods for 12 months.
In 2008, NPB provided funding to help initiate the early research published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology that led to the groundbreaking LEAP study and NPB continues to support this work. This research has contributed to the American Academy of Pediatrics recommending early introduction of peanut protein for infants who are at increased risk of developing the allergy. In January, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases released guidelines for practitioners and caregivers that details when and how to introduce peanut foods safely to prevent peanut allergies.
