Protecting infants against peanut allergies

While public health recommendations have long advised parents to avoid feeding potentially allergenic foods to their infants in the hope of avoiding later food allergies, a new study published in The New England Journal of Medicine has shown the exact opposite appears to be true.

The study – which followed over 600 high-risk infants for five years – showed that when babies were fed peanut products regularly up until their fifth birthday they were 81 percent less likely to develop a peanut allergy than their counterparts who simply avoided peanuts all together.

Peanut allergies affect between one and three percent of children in the US, Australia and West Europe. There is also emerging evidence that it is starting to affect children in Asia as well.

Researchers from King’s College London recruited 640 ‘high-risk’ infants aged between four and 11 months for the study. Infants were considered to be ‘high-risk’ for developing a peanut allergy because they already had eczema, an egg allergy, or both.

Infants were then randomly assigned to either a peanut consumption group or peanut avoidance group and monitored by researchers until their fifth birthday.

Babies in the peanut consumption group were fed foods containing peanuts – the equivalent of four heaped teaspoons (6 grams) – at least three or more times a week, starting from before their first birthday until the time they turned five, while their counterparts avoided all peanut products.

The results suggested that those babies who were already at an increased risk for developing a peanut allergy were protected from that allergy at five years of age if they regularly ate foods containing peanuts from infancy.

“What we found was a very great reduction in the rate of peanut allergy,” said Professor Gideon Lack of King’s College London, who led the study. “About 17 percent of the kids who avoided peanuts developed peanut allergies, compared with only 3.2 percent of the kids who ate peanuts.”

Potentially far-reaching applications for food allergy prevention

The LEAP study is the first of its kind to show that consumption is an effective strategy for preventing a food allergy.

“Food allergies are a growing concern, not just in the United States but around the world,” said Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in a news release. “For a study to show a benefit of this magnitude in the prevention of peanut allergy is without precedent. The results have the potential to transform how we approach food allergy prevention.”

Professor Lack, however, notes that infants already showing signs of peanut allergy were excluded from the study so it is difficult to say whether early exposure to peanuts would be a safe or effective prevention strategy for them. “Parents of infants and young children with eczema and/or egg allergy should consult with an Allergist, Paediatrician, or their General Practitioner prior to feeding them peanut products,” he said in a news release.

The next step for researchers is to determine whether protection against peanut allergy is sustained past five years of age without continued exposure to peanut products, with the LEAP-on study continuing to monitor the same children for a further twelve months.

Further links:
Nejm.org
Niaid.nih.gov
Medicalnewstoday.com
nhs.uk