Study may have found promising way to avoid developing allergies

The new study looked at the incidence of peanut allergies in 342 children since birth up until age 7.

Of course, there has been plenty of research that has looked into a child’s consumption of nuts during infancy and the increased risk of nut allergies if this occurs. However, the new study looks at peanut consumption of mums while breastfeeding and some very eye-opening results have come about. Of those analysed, 58.2 percent of mums ate peanuts while breastfeeding and 22.5 percent of these introduced peanuts to their baby by 12 months-of-age. Kids were five times less likely to develop peanut allergies if mum ate peanuts during the time breastfeeding AND managed to feed baby peanuts before they were one year old. Kids that hadn’t eaten nuts before they reached 12 months were sensitised to peanuts (15.1 percent) and if mums did give baby peanuts before they were a year old, but didn’t eat nuts themselves that sensitisation reached 17.6 percent.   But what was super interesting and informative about it all was that the lowest incidence of sensitisation (1.7 percent) occurred when mum ate peanuts while breastfeeding PLUS introduced baby to them before 12 months-of-age. Basically, if mums did one but not the other, rates of nut allergies were higher. Lead author and paediatric allergist at Humber River Hospital in Toronto, Dr Tracy Pitt, said,

“We hope to use these results as a starting point for more research to better inform guidelines for preventing food allergies in children.”

At present, the HSE’s guidelines include the following:

“Solid foods should be introduced when an infant is around six months old, alongside continued breastfeeding. If mothers choose to start giving their babies solid food before six months of age, they should avoid giving the commonly allergenic foods (milk, egg, peanuts, nuts, fish, wheat). If a baby already has a diagnosed allergic disease such as eczema or a food allergy, they could be at higher risk of developing peanut allergy. The mothers of these children should talk to their health professional before giving peanuts to their child for the first time.”