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Infants Should Eat Peanuts to Prevent Allergies, New Guidelines Say

Infants Should Eat Peanuts to Prevent Allergies, New Guidelines Say


New guidelines have been issued to health care providers to introduce peanut-containing foods to infants as early 4-6 months to prevent peanut allergies, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The new guidelines are aimed at infants with various levels of risk for developing a peanut allergy. The first is for babies who have severe eczema, an egg allergy, or both, and experts recommend introducing peanuts to their diets between ages 4-6 months. The second suggests that babies with mild or moderate eczema should first eat peanut-containing foods at 6 months old, and the third recommends that infants should be introduced to foods at any time.

Parents should check with their child’s health care providers before giving them peanut-containing foods and can take an allergy blood test, skin prick test, or oral food challenge to determine whether it is okay to add to their diets.



In a clinical trial back in February 2015, children with an egg allergy and/or eczema began eating foods with peanut from infancy to age 5 experienced an 81 percent reduction in developing a peanut allergy.


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Samantha Neudorf

Author: Samantha Neudorf is a former editor at NYMetroParents. See More

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