This new recommendation is a vast departure from previous suggestions. In fact, it was just back in 2000 that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended waiting until 3 years old to give children peanuts. However, the 2015 New England Journal of Medicine study produced results that are difficult to argue with!
Over the years of the study, “only 1.9 percent of 530 allergy-prone children who had been fed peanuts had developed an allergy, compared with 13.7 percent of the children who were denied peanuts.”
Now, parents are encouraged to give kids foods containing peanut powder even before the 6-month mark if they are low risk. Parents of babies who are at high risk of developing peanut allergies (they tend to have egg allergies or severe eczema) may, with the help and approval of the baby's health care provider, start giving peanuts at 4 to 6 months of age.
Chairman of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology's food allergy committee, Dr. Matthew Greenhawt, tells The New York Times there seems to be “a window of time in which the body is more likely to tolerate a food than react to it, and if you can educate the body during that window, you're at much lower likelihood of developing an allergy to that food.”
Has this new study changed your mind about giving peanuts to children? Will you give your babies peanuts to help them build immunity and protect against peanut allergies? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!
Article Source: The Kitchn
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