Peanut Allergy Can Be Prevented At An Early Age; Early Introduction Of Peanut To Babies The Cure?

The National Institute of Health has new guidelines which state that babies given "peanut-based foods" at an early age can prevent allergies.

It is indicated in the guidelines that most babies should eat foods containing peanuts before their first birthday. This may prevent them from having the allergies later on. This early exposure to the kind of food can lower the baby's risk for this kind of food allergies.

According to a report, pediatricians had been advising parents to avoid "peanuts" until the baby is three years old. However, this recommendation did not work and had been dropped in 2008. In fact, Dr. Scott Sicherer, a representative of the American Academy of Pediatrics on the guidelines shares that avoiding peanuts for a while has been wrong.

It is reported that 2% of children are affected by peanut allergy in the United States. A peanut allergy can be serious which can lead to anaphylaxis and even death. This has been the reason why parents are not introducing their babies to the food so to avoid the allergies.

The recommendations in the guidelines fall into three categories. Those babies capable of the allergies are those that have asthma or egg allergy. It is best to introduce these children to peanut-containing foods by the age of 4-6 months. It is also recommended that parents seek the professional opinion of an allergist so to get the best advice.

The second category is those children that have mild eczema. These are the ones who are less likely to get the allergies. They can be introduced to peanut-containing foods by age 6 months. Third and the last are those that are not allergic at all. The parents can have these children eat peanuts at any age depending on the orientation.

Meanwhile, it is reported that peanut allergies had been growing more and more every time. These new guidelines can actually save lives and lower the cost of health care.