Feeding infants peanut products could reduce the likelihood that they develop a peanut allergy later in life, according to the results of a new study gaining national attention this week.
The study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine online Monday, found that introducing peanuts into the diets of infants led to an overall 81 percent reduction in the development of a peanut allergy.
Bethesda’s National Institutes of Health provided funding for the study, which was led by Gideon Lack, a doctor based at King’s College London.
The study followed 542 infants ranging from 4 to 11 months old until they were 5 years old who did not show any sensitivity to peanuts prior to testing. A portion of the children ate some form of peanuts three times a week, while others ate diets devoid of the nuts. Researchers found that by 5 years old, about 13.7 percent of the children who avoided eating peanuts had developed a peanut allergy, while just 1.9 percent of those who had eaten peanuts regularly developed an allergy, according to the study.
Another 98 children were found to have a sensitivity to peanuts prior to the tests. Among that group 35 percent of the children who avoided eating peanuts were found to have an allergy at age 5, while just 10 percent of the children who consumed peanuts regularly had an allergy by the same age.
“Food allergies are a growing concern, not just in the United States but around the world,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH, said in a statement. “For a study to show a benefit of this magnitude in the prevention of peanut allergy is without precedent. The results have the potential to transform how we approach food allergy prevention.”
The results of the study have been highlighted this week on news outlets across the world, ranging from the BBC in the United Kingdom to the New York Times. The study may help stem the rise of peanut allergies in the world, which have nearly tripled since 1997, according to a 2010 study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
