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New Peanut Allergy Guidelines Could Train Babies’ Immune Systems, Prevent Allergic Reactions

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 07:00 PST, Jan 5, 2017

Having a child with a peanut allergy can be a terrifying, even life-threatening situation. However, new guidelines issued this week could help reduce the risk of children developing the deadly condition. On Thursday, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and other groups released a new set of guidelines to help parents prevent peanut allergies in their kids, and the recommendations might be shocking to some.

As NBC News reports, experts are now suggesting that parents expose their babies to peanuts by six months of age, and to continue to give babies regular doses of peanuts if they don’t react. According to the new guidelines, these new exposure guidelines may prevent a peanut allergy from ever developing. In fact, experts say that even the “highest risk” babies can benefit from this kind of peanut protein exposure.

To assuage potential safety concerns, experts advise that those babies at highest risk for a deadly allergy should be tested at the office of a specialist.

“We actually want all children to have peanut introduced.”

Those babies that fall into the “highest risk” group for peanut allergy issues are those suffering from severe eczema and/or an egg allergy, and the new peanut allergy guidelines recommend they be seen and tested at their allergy specialists’ office between four and six months of age. Then, the doctor can watch over the baby while they are being exposed to the peanut protein in order to protect against “anything dangerous happening.”

Experts say the benefits of this kind of exposure can be tremendous and have a profoundly positive impact on the lives and health of babies that otherwise would have developed a life-threatening allergy.

“We know that these children with severe eczema and or egg allergy had about an 80 percent reduced chance of developing peanut allergy if peanut was introduced between four to 11 months of life.”

The new peanut allergy recommendations are a complete 180-degree turn from the previous guidelines. Prior to this week, experts advised parents to keep their children away from peanuts and peanut products until they were at least three-years-old if they demonstrated risk factors for developing the deadly allergy.

According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, these new peanut allergy guidelines can effectively “train” the immune systems of predisposed babies so that they don’t go haywire in the event of accidental peanut exposure. Severe peanut allergies can result in symptoms ranging from the seemingly mild, such as a runny nose or skin reactions, such as hives, redness or swelling to life-threatening anaphylactic shock.

https://twitter.com/quinn54/status/817066133270515712

If parents adhere to the new peanut allergy guidelines, particularly in cases of the highest risk babies, it could be a life-changer for the next generation.

“That’s a whole generation of children who never have to develop this allergy.”

According to researchers who have compiled the new peanut allergy guidelines, the process is actually “very, very safe” despite being at odds with everything parents have been told for decades. They say that even babies that initially demonstrate a sensitivity to the peanut protein can be prevented from becoming “fully allergic” though exposure to small doses.

Additionally, researchers say that none of the babies that were exposed to peanut protein as part of a recent study had a severe reaction.

“Living with peanut allergy requires constant vigilance. Preventing the development of peanut allergy will improve and save lives and lower health care costs.”

Even babies at moderate risk of developing peanut allergies can be exposed to a small amount of food containing peanut at home, according to experts. Infants in this category are those suffering from mild to moderate eczema, and the new peanut allergy guidelines indicate that their parents don’t need a doctor’s supervision to begin the peanut exposure process.

As for low-risk babies, the new guidelines indicate that they should be exposed to peanut protein at their parent’s discretion, but by six-months-old at the latest.

Of course, no child under four-years-old should be fed whole peanuts due to the choking risk.

Authors of the new peanut allergy guidelines say that family history (such as a parent or sibling with a peanut allergy) is not a risk factor and doesn’t need to be considered when exposing babies to peanut protein.

The single most important thing that parents should do when exposing their children to peanut for the first time is to carefully observe them after the exposure to make sure that they don’t show signs of reaction or intolerance. These signs can manifest in a number of ways, so the new peanut allergy guidelines advise parents to be diligent.

“It can be anything to a rash to vomiting, or something more severe such as coughing, wheezing vomiting, looking lethargic, looking withdrawn, or going into shock. You need to be on the lookout just like you would like when you’re introducing any food.”

According to the experts, these new guidelines were developed to take advantage of the “window” in babies’ immune systems in which they don’t recognize peanuts as dangerous. The new peanut allergy guidelines indicate that this window happens “very, very early” in life, and studies indicate that the new protocol results in very few young babies reacting to peanut.

[Featured Image by Marka777/Shutterstock]

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