Introducing peanut products early and regularly can help desensitise a baby to them. Photo: TNS
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https://scmp.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/article/3003133/preventing-peanut-allergies-feed-infants-peanut-products Health & Wellness
How to prevent peanut allergies: feed babies peanuts in their first year, doctors now say
- Report from the American Academy of Paediatrics says to introduce peanut-based foods before a child’s first birthday, even as early as four months
- ‘I would personally introduce it as early as a baby is developmentally ready to eat solid foods,’ report’s co-author says
Paediatricians now recommend introducing peanut-based foods to infants before their first birthday to prevent peanut allergies, according to a report from the American Academy of Paediatrics.
“The big news is to introduce peanuts early,” said Dr Frank Greer, co-author of the study published this month, which summarises the latest research on food allergies and provides guidance to paediatricians.
Greer acknowledged that the current recommendation is a shift from earlier guidance that parents “shouldn’t introduce any allergic foods to infants before 12 months, and some even said before two years.”
Greer said that introducing these foods to infants before they turn one can help the baby’s body develop a tolerance to them. “Introduce the foods before 12 months, for sure,” he said. “Everybody agrees on that. The average age of introduction [in the studies] was seven months, but was done as early as four months.”
An initial report on the topic was published around 2008, Greer explained, and since that time, new-found evidence required a revision.
Some parents may be sceptical of this news since some were told as recently as five years ago not to introduce peanut-based foods to their infant. But Greer explains that what was advised a couple of years ago “wasn’t based on scientific information, but expert opinion”.
Dr Faith Myers, a paediatrician at the Paediatric Wellness Centre at the Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Illinois in the US, echoed Greer’s advice and the scientific validity of the study. For the last year, she has been telling her patients to introduce peanut products to their babies when they are around six months old. “They’re making a recommendation based on science,” she said.
Myers explained that when her adult children, now 25 and 30 years old, were babies, she put them to sleep on their stomachs until new research found that babies receive more oxygen when sleeping on their backs. She made the switch.
“We made a decision to sleep them on their backs, based on science, not what we thought,” she said. “We follow the science.”
Dr Frank Greer suggests not even waiting until seven or eight months old to give a child allergenic foods. Photo: Shutterstock
While the new advice to introduce peanuts early can make parents uncomfortable, Myers reassures them by explaining that babies under six months old typically don’t develop allergies to those foods. She says that if you introduce peanut products early and regularly, you’re almost desensitising the baby, so he or she won’t develop the allergy.
“Earlier is better,” Greer said. “Don’t wait to introduce allergenic foods until after seven or eight months. I would personally introduce it as early as a baby is developmentally ready to eat solid foods.”