What age should you give your children peanuts? This guidance helped 60,000 kids avoid allergies

By&nbspAP&nbspwith&nbspEuronews

Published on 20/10/2025 - 11:01 GMT+2

A decade aft a landmark study proved that feeding peanut products to young babies could forestall nan improvement of life-threatening allergies, caller investigation finds nan alteration has made a large quality successful nan existent world.

About 60,000 American children person avoided processing peanut allergies aft guidance first issued successful 2015 changed aesculapian believe by recommending introducing nan allergen to infants starting arsenic early arsenic 4 months.

The guidelines are successful statement pinch European standards. In 2021, nan European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology recommended that babies aged 4 to six months beryllium introduced to peanuts. The United Kingdom and France person issued akin guidance.

The caller study, published successful nan aesculapian diary Pediatrics, indicates nan alteration has paid off.

“I tin really travel to you coming and opportunity location are little kids pinch nutrient allergy coming than location would person been if we hadn’t implemented this nationalist wellness effort,” said Dr David Hill, an allergist and interrogator astatine Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Hill and colleagues analysed wellness information from dozens of US paediatric practices to way diagnoses of nutrient allergies successful young children before, during, and aft nan guidelines were issued.

The researchers recovered that peanut allergies successful children up to property 3 declined by much than 27 per cent aft guidance for high-risk kids was first issued successful 2015 and by much than 40 per cent aft nan recommendations were expanded successful 2017.

Why nan recommendations changed

Peanut allergy is caused erstwhile nan body’s immune strategy mistakenly identifies proteins successful peanuts arsenic harmful and releases chemicals that trigger allergic symptoms, including hives, respiratory symptoms, and sometimes life-threatening anaphylaxis.

For decades, doctors had recommended delaying feeding children peanuts and different foods apt to trigger allergies until property three.

But successful 2015, Gideon Lack astatine King’s College London published nan groundbreaking Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) trial.

Lack and colleagues showed that introducing peanut products successful infancy reduced nan early consequence of processing nutrient allergies by much than 80 per cent. Later study showed that nan protection persisted successful astir 70 per cent of kids into adolescence.

The study instantly sparked caller guidelines urging early preamble of peanuts – but putting them into believe has been slow.

Confusion and uncertainty astir nan champion measurement to present peanuts early successful life led to nan lag, according to a commentary that accompanied nan study. Early on, aesculapian experts and parents alike questioned whether nan believe could beryllium adopted extracurricular of tightly controlled objective settings.

The caller study emphasises nan existent guidance, updated successful 2021, which calls for introducing peanuts and different awesome nutrient allergens betwixt 4 and six months, without anterior screening aliases testing, Hill said.

Parents should consult their paediatricians astir immoderate questions.

“It doesn’t person to beryllium a batch of nan food, but small tastes of peanut butter, milk-based yoghurt, soy-based yoghurts, and character butters,” Hill said.

“These are really bully ways to let nan immune strategy vulnerability to these allergenic foods successful a safe way”.