A new study has found that roughly 60,000 children in the United States have likely avoided developing a peanut allergy following a shift in guidelines beginning in 2015 that encouraged exposure.
In 2015, the landmark Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) trial showed that infants at high risk of peanut allergy who were introduced to peanut‐containing foods as early as four-months-old had over an 80 percent lower risk of developing peanut allergy compared to infants who avoided peanuts.
Following that, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and other professional bodies updated recommendations encouraging early introduction of peanut‐based foods in infancy, particularly for high-risk babies.
The new study analyzed health records of young children and found peanut allergy diagnoses among children aged 0–3 fell by more than 27 percent after the 2015 guidance, and by more than 40 percent following the broader 2017 expansion of recommendations. Researchers estimate the intervention prevented about 60,000 new cases of peanut allergy.
“That’s a remarkable thing, right?” said Dr. David Hill, the author of the study that was published on Monday in the medical Journal Pediatrics.
“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, according to CBS News.
“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.”
