Thousands of babies avoid allergy by eating peanuts in early life

Thousands of babies have avoided life-threatening peanut allergies, a decade after a landmark study proved eating peanut products early could prevent allergy. “We estimate that there’s at least 40,000 less kids with peanut allergy today than there would've been,” says Dr David Hill, a pediatric allergist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who co-authored a new study published on Monday, October 19. Hill and colleagues analysed health records from dozens of pediatric practices to track diagnoses of food allergies in young children before, during and after the guidelines were issued. The researchers found that peanut allergies in children aged zero to three declined by more than 27 percent after guidance was first issued in 2015 and by more than 40 percent after the recommendations were expanded two years later.