A recent report on Digital Journal examined research that showed if children are given peanut products early in life the chance of developing an allergic reaction diminished. Moreover, follow-up research showed the effect could be sustained for up to one year when no peanut product were consumed.
A parallel study has found introducing babies (up to three months old) to foods like peanuts, eggs and four other potentially allergy-causing foods (cow’s milk, sesame, whitefish, and wheat) appears to prevent serious reactions later in life. The study was commissioned by the U.K. Food Standards Agency, which is a government body.
The study compared the difference in allergic reaction between babies aged three months old, who were given food based on peanut and egg-white proteins, with babies who were given the same food when aged six-months. Babies were split into two groups at each of the two ages: a test group who were given small quantities of the food products and a control group who did not receive the potentially allergy-inducing foods. The amount of food eaten was equal to one-and-a-half teaspoons of peanut butter and one small boiled egg each week. The consumption of food complemented breastfeeding.
After this, the infants were monitored over a three-year period to determine if they developed any allergies to those foods between the ages of one and three years old. It was found that those given egg, peanuts and other foods at three-months had a far lower chance of developing allergies.
Commenting on the study, lead researcher Dr Michael Perkin told The Guardian: “This is about what’s the best way of introducing allergenic foods to all infants, not just a very selected subgroup. And that is absolutely unique. No one has done anything remotely like this.”
The study formed part of a program called Eat (Enquiring About Tolerance). The findings are published in the New England Journal of Medicine, in a study called “Randomized Trial of Introduction of Allergenic Foods in Breast-Fed Infants.”
