A common Israeli practice which many Western parents have long shunned may in fact be much smarter for their children’s development. A major study has demonstrated that contrary to popular belief, feeding peanut products to babies may actually prevent the children from developing allergies later in life.
The once-rare allergy has doubled over the past decade, now affecting more than two percent of American children. The allergy rate in other parts of the world is rising, too. This is especially troubling since peanuts are the leading cause of food-allergy-related serious reactions and deaths. Unlike other common childhood allergies, peanut allergies are rarely outgrown.
The study was funded in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). The results were published online Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine and discussed at an American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology conference in Houston.
According to Dr. Anthony Fauci of the NIAID, the results, which he called “without precedent”, “have the potential to transform how we approach food allergy prevention.”
The study was initiated after researchers at King’s College London in England noticed local Jewish children had much higher rates of peanut allergies than their Israeli counterparts. The big difference between the two communities? Bamba, an Israeli corn-and-peanut-butter snack popular among even the smallest of Israeli children.
London children, like most North American kids, are usually kept away from high-risk allergens such as peanuts until at least a year of age. In fact, until 2008, American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines used to recommend against giving children foods with peanuts before age three.
Over 600 babies in England, aged four to 11 months, took part in the study. They were chosen because they demonstrated risk factors associated with allergy development in childhood. All were tested for peanut allergies before the study began, and were divided into two groups: those who showed no sign of peanut allergy and those who showed mild to moderate reactions to the allergen.
Half the children in each group were then fed peanut-based products such as Bamba each week, while the other half continued to avoid them. Of the 530 participants who showed no signs of allergy when the study began, only 2 percent of those who ate peanut products developed a peanut allergy, as opposed to 14 percent of those who avoided them.
Of the 98 children with some allergic symptoms at the outset, only 11 percent of those who consumed peanuts developed an actual allergy, while 35 percent of those who abstained did. The severity of reactions among those who developed allergies was the same across all groups.
There are still many questions which “must be addressed,” such as how much, how often and for how long must a child consume peanut products to avoid an allergy.
However, “we believe that because the results of this trial are so compelling, and the problem of the increasing prevalence of peanut allergy so alarming, new guidelines should be forthcoming very soon,” Dr. Rebecca Gruchalla, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and Dr. Hugh Sampson of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York wrote in the medical journal.
It should be noted that peanuts themselves still present a choking hazard, and even babies who are determined not to have a peanut allergy should not be given whole peanuts.
