Exposing infants to peanuts 'significantly cuts' allergy risk
Alex Pattinson
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
A study by King’s College London has shown that giving babies peanut products can prevent them developing an allergy to them.
Researchers found that eating peanut products cut the risk of young children developing peanut allergy by 80 per cent.
The LEAPA (Learning Early About Peanut Allergy) study, led by Professor Gideon Lack, involved 640 children aged between four and 11 months at Evelina London Children’s Hospital who were considered to be at high risk of developing a peanut allergy, due to egg allergy and/ or severe eczema.
To find out whether peanut consumption or avoidance was the best preventative strategy, half of the children were given peanut-containing foods three times a week until the age of five, while the other half avoided them.
Less than one per cent of the children exposed to peanuts developed peanut allergy compared to 17.5 per cent of those in the avoidance group.
Just 13 of the 319 children who were given peanuts showed signs of allergy during the study and were therefore unable to complete the final assessment at five years old.
The study concluded that early and regular consumption of peanut was safe and linked to a substantial and significant decrease in the development of peanut alllergy in high-risk infants by the age of five.
Gideon Lack, who is Head of Paediatric Allergy at KCL and Head of Children’s Allergy Service at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said, 'This is an important clinical development and contravenes previous guidelines. Whilst these were withdrawn in 2008 in the UK and US, our study suggests that new guidelines may be needed to reduce the rate of peanut allergy in our children.
'The study also excluded infants showing early strong signs of having already developed peanut allergy; the safety and effectiveness of early peanut consumption in this group remains unknown and requires further study. Parents of infants and young children with eczema and/or egg allergy should consult with an allergist, paediatrician, or their GP prior to feeding them peanut products.'
Professor Lack also stressed that very young babies cannot be given whole peanuts due to the obvious choking risk.
The LEAP-On study, also by Kings College London, aims to continue monitoring the children who ate peanuts to see if the protection against the allergy lasts, when they stop eating them for a year.
- The study is published in the New England Journal of Medicine
