About a decade ago, immunologists recommended that parents introduce common allergy-causing foods to their children when their kids are older so they won't develop allergies. However, a recent review states just the opposite: introducing allergy-causing foods to children as early as possible will prevent allergies, Medical Daily reported.
According to researchers, children should be exposed to food that contains peanuts, soy, eggs and other common allergens as early as four to six months because doing so increases their chances of not developing allergies to such food.
"If parents ask how to prevent allergy in their children, our current advice is to introduce the allergenic foods at four to six months of age," study authors Elissa Abrams and Allan Becker from the Department of Pediatric Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg wrote in the review. "Once highly allergenic foods are introduced, regular exposure is important for maintenance of tolerance - children should eat these foods on a regular basis."
Babies at high risk of developing a hypersensitivity to allergens - those whose parents or siblings are allergic to certain foods - could also benefit from this approach. A study called Learning Early About Peanut (LEAP) found that introducing peanuts to high-risk children at an early age decreases their chances of developing food allergies by 80 percent, according to a news release.
The results of LEAP led groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology and the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology to recommend that high-risk babies be introduced to peanuts at four to 11 months old, contradicting previous guidelines that introduction of allergenic foods to high-risk babies be done at 12 to 36 months old. However, physician guidance should be sought.
"It has been well documented that avoidance of allergenic foods is not preventive of food allergy," the authors wrote. "In the newly released LEAP study, there is strong evidence that early introduction of peanut is in fact preventive. How this will change current guidelines on food introduction remains to be seen."
The review was published in the online Oct. 19 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
