Even Infants at Low Risk of Peanut Allergy Should Eat Peanut Early

Children who do not consume peanut during their first year of life are more likely to be allergic to peanut at age three, according to new findings from the CHILD Cohort Study. Using data from over 2,600 Canadian children, researchers have found that infants who did not consume peanut in their first 12 months of life were more than four times as likely to have a clinical allergy to peanut by age three compared to infants who consumed peanut before their first birthday. The research was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. “Some of the best-known studies looking at timing of peanut introduction have focused on children who were at the highest risk of developing peanut allergy. Our findings are significant because the CHILD Cohort Study children are from the general population and most are not at high risk of peanut allergy,” said lead researcher Dr. Elinor Simons, an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at the University of Manitoba and a clinician-scientist at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM). “ Even when we excluded high-risk children, early peanut introduction was associated with lower risk of peanut allergy by age three. This means that low-risk children may also benefit from early introduction of peanut.” Click here for the rest of the article.