Recent medical studies have shown that old recommendations to delay introducing peanuts to children directly contributed to higher rates of allergies, instead of protecting them as expected, according to CNN.

Peanut Allergy

Studies have clarified that new research conducted by British doctor Gideon Lack from King’s College London has changed the prevailing scientific understanding of peanut allergy. It has proven that feeding children peanuts at an early age, between 4 and 11 months, reduces the likelihood of developing the allergy by more than 80%.

This scientific journey began more than two decades ago when British doctor Lack noticed during a lecture in Israel that the rate of peanut allergy among Jewish children there was almost non-existent compared to their peers in the United Kingdom.

It turned out that the reason was the habit of feeding Israeli children “Bamba,” a snack rich in peanut protein, from the early months of their lives.

In a 7-year experiment involving 640 infants, the results of which were published in 2015 in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers confirmed that avoiding peanuts in the early stages of life increases the chances or risks of developing the allergy.

Early exposure also helps build “immune strength” naturally.

Comprehensive Review

These findings led to a comprehensive review of the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which in 2015 reversed its previous guidelines and recommended introducing peanuts early to children at risk of allergies.

Another recent study in the journal Pediatrics revealed that peanut allergy rates among American children under the age of 3 have decreased by 43% since the adoption of the new recommendations, meaning that about 40,000 children have avoided developing the food allergy.

Lack is currently conducting research in a new experiment called SEAL, supported by the National Institutes of Health in the United States, to test whether treating “eczema” in the early stages of a child’s life can contribute to preventing the development of food allergies later.

Lack says that medical history is “full of mistakes that science corrects itself,” and added: “We thought we were protecting children, but we were actually putting them at risk.”

(Translations)