When a child has a high risk of developing a peanut allergy, the natural reaction would be to keep them away from legumes of all types for as long as possible. According to new findings however, it might be more beneficial to do the opposite.
Researchers from Kings College London and the US Institutes of Health have discovered that feeding peanut products to infants with a high likelihood of developing a nut allergy resulted in an 81% drop in the number of children who went on to develop one.
The study of 600 infants, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, has been hailed as without precedent. It's also particularly timely as the number of children who suffer from peanut allergies has almost doubled in the past ten years.
Doctors noted that because of the serious nature of nut allergies, this treatment should only ever be attempted under expert supervision. Never attempt it at home.
