Feeding allergy-causing foods such as peanuts to babies is more likely to protect them than cause allergic reactions, based on two new studies. One study published suggests that feeding babies peanuts can be an effective allergy-prevention step, while the other United States study shows that the early strategy of feeding eggs to infants as young as 4 to 6 months is also effective.
Both studies were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine on March 4, Friday. It was in line with its presentation at a medical conference in Los Angeles.
The first study was a follow-up of one published last year. It discovered that allergy protection continued until the baby was at least five years old, and lasted for a year or more after the child stopped eating foods with peanuts. That means that at-risk kids could stop eating peanut butter weekly for at least a year.
Meanwhile, the other study shows that early introduction of eggs to children can also be effective in preventing allergies. It often causes allergic reactions like peanuts.
The study's findings showed that that peanut and egg allergies were less common in babies who started eating them at three months old than in infants who were only fed breast milk, according to CBC.
Food allergies are very common and can cause serious health issues. They affect up to eight percent of children under age three years old, and around two percent of US children have peanut allergies.
Last year's study was a game-changer in experts' methods for preventing the food allergies. Dr. Anthony Fauci is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He said in a statement that the study was the first one to show that early introduction to peanuts can prevent an allergy to the legume.
In other food allergy news, researchers at University College Cork's School of Medicine discovered that evaluating the weakness of a newborn baby's skin barrier can help to predict which children will have food allergies in the future, according to Irish Examiner. This method could also help to prevent asthma and other allergic conditions.
The University College study was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
This video takes up if peanut butter is healthy: