A decade after a landmark study proved that feeding peanut products to young babies could prevent development of life-threatening allergies, new research finds the change has made a big difference in the real world.
About 60,000 children have avoided developing peanut allergies after guidance first issued in 2015 upended medical practice by recommending introducing the allergen to infants starting as early as 4 months.
"That's a remarkable thing, right?" said Dr. David Hill, an allergist and researcher at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and author of a study published Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics. Hill and colleagues analyzed electronic health records from dozens of pediatric practices to track diagnoses of food allergies in young children before, during and after the guidelines were issued.
"I can actually come to you today and say there are less kids with food allergy today than there would have been if we hadn't implemented this public health effort," he added.
"Our findings have relevance from those of us who treat patients to those caring for infants, and more awareness, education and advocacy could further increase the positive results we observed in this study," he continued. "Future studies could potentially explore specific feeding practices that help us better understand the timing, frequency and dose of foods that optimize protection against food allergies."
The researchers found that peanut allergies in children ages 0 to 3 declined by more than 27% after guidance for high-risk kids was first issued in 2015 and by more than 40% after the recommendations were expanded in 2017.
The effort hasn't yet reduced an overall increase in food allergies in the U.S. in recent years. About 8% of children are affected, including more than 2% with a peanut allergy.
Peanut allergy is caused when the body's immune system mistakenly identifies proteins in peanuts as harmful and releases chemicals that trigger allergic symptoms, including hives, respiratory symptoms and, sometimes, life-threatening anaphylaxis.
For decades, doctors had recommended delaying feeding children peanuts and other foods likely to trigger allergies until age 3. But in 2015, Gideon Lack at King's College London published the groundbreaking Learning Early About Peanut Allergy, or LEAP, trial.
Lack and colleagues showed that introducing peanut products in infancy reduced the future risk of developing food allergies by more than 80%. Later analysis showed that the protection persisted in about 70% of kids into adolescence.
... continue reading