Parents are often cautious about feeding their infants peanut butter for fear of triggering peanut protein allergy. Life-threatening allergic reactions have become much more common over the last two decades.
But a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that exposing babies to small amounts of peanut protein during the first year of life may actually reduce the likelihood of peanut allergy.
In this British study more than 500 babies between four and eleven months old had egg allergy or severe eczema. As a result, they were considered to be at risk for peanut allergy.
These youngsters were tested for peanut allergy, and if they did not react they were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Parents of babies in one group were admonished to avoid all peanut products. The other group of parents was told to feed their infants at least six grams of peanut protein a week.
The Results of Feeding Babies Peanut Protein
At age five the children were tested again. To everyone’s surprise, less than 2 percent of the kids who had been eating peanuts had developed an allergy. In the peanut-avoiding group, however, more than 13 percent of the youngsters were allergic.
The investigators encourage parents to have their babies tested for peanut allergy. If the test comes back negative, they suggest that the child could eat peanut-containing food regularly. This might even keep some youngsters from developing peanut allergies.
