Eating Peanuts Early May Stave Off Peanut Allergy

Peanut allergy is on the increase. We repeatedly hear reports of children who are severely affected by unwitting ingestion of a peanut-contaminated food item, so that schools and restaurants are warned to ensure their offerings are totally peanut-free.
Why is the problem increasing? In the UK, Australia, and North America, women are advised to avoid eating peanuts during pregnancy, breastfeeding, and during the early life of their infant. One would suppose that these steps would lead to fewer, rather than more, cases of peanut allergy in children. But a study reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology suggests this is a wrong assumption.
The researchers determined the presence of peanut allergy among Israeli and UK Jewish schoolchildren, using a questionnaire approach. Responses were obtained from 5171 in the UK and 5615 in Israel. The prevalence was 1.85% in the UK and 0.17% in Israel. This 10-fold difference could not be accounted for by differences in atopy, social class, or genetic background. A second questionnaire was sent concerning peanut consumption and weaning in Jewish children. They found that 69% of Jewish children in Israel (which has no warning guidelines) were eating peanuts at 9 months of age, compared with just 10% of those in the UK. Between 8 and 14 months of age the Israeli children ate an average of 7.1 grams of peanuts, while the UK children ate none.
The findings indicate that the recommendations in UK (and hence in the USA and some other countries) to avoid peanuts in pregnancy and during lactation and early life are responsible for the increase in peanut allergy increases. A large, randomized study in the UK is currently testing the effects of early peanut exposure. However, until the results are known, it might be wise to tone down the recommendations to avoid peanuts in pregnancy etc; it clearly isn’t helping . . .