Introducing peanuts in infancy minimizes allergy risk in adolescence

A recent study sponsored and co-funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases found that regular consumption of peanut products from infancy to five years of age reduced the rate of peanut allergies by 71% in adolescence.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine Evidence (NEJM Evidence), built on findings from the Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) clinical trial and the LEAP-On study.

Half of the participants consumed peanut products regularly from infancy to five years old during the original LEAP study. The other half of the study population avoided peanuts and peanut products during that period.

Roughly 80% of the participants from the original study were recruited for the LEAP-Trio study. Of the 508 individuals recruited from the original study, 255 were in the peanut consumption group, while 253 were in the peanut avoidance group.

Researchers found that 15.9% of children in the peanut avoidance group had developed a peanut allergy by 12. Comparatively, only 4.4% of the peanut consumption group had developed an allergy. These statistics indicate that peanut exposure during early childhood reduces the risk of a peanut allergy in adolescence by roughly 71%.

“Today’s findings should reinforce parents’ and caregivers’ confidence that feeding their young children peanut products beginning in infancy according to established guidelines can provide lasting protection from peanut allergy,” said NIAID Director Jeanne Marrazzo, MD, MPH, in the press release. “If widely implemented, this safe, simple strategy could prevent tens of thousands of cases of peanut allergy among the 3.6 million children born in the United States each year.”

Additionally, the researchers noted that the frequency of peanut consumption varied among those who consumed peanuts. Sometimes, those patients spent periods not consuming peanuts but did not develop an allergy. While these findings need to be validated, they could be a simple strategy for allergy prevention; however, parents should contact their provider and consult professionals before introducing new foods into their child’s diet.