Good news about peanut allergies; they really are going down!

Any good news is welcome these days, and this news is terrific: Peanut allergies have plummeted in children, study shows.

When peanut allergies were increasing, pediatricians advised total abstinence.  But experience in Israel argued the opposite: introduce peanuts early.

In 2017, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases formally recommended the early-introduction approach and issued national guidelines.

The new study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, found that food allergy rates in children under 3 fell after those guidelines were put into place — dropping to 0.93 percent between 2017 and 2020, from 1.46 percent between 2012 and 2015. That’s a 36 percent reduction in all food allergies, driven largely by a 43 percent drop in peanut allergies.

JAMA did an editorial: Peanut Allergies Appear to Be on the Decline Following Early Introduction Guidelines

But many now believe that the guidance to avoid peanuts in the first years of life likely backfired, as introducing them early may protect against peanut allergies.

Against that backdrop, the push toward early introduction of allergenic foods to children has grown steadily in recent years. Randomized clinical trials have demonstrated that early peanut introduction may actually help prevent allergy.

One of the neat things about having done this blog for so long (since 2007!) is that I can look back on what I’ve said previously.  I’ve been writing about peanut allergies for a long time.

• June 2016: Israel’s solution to peanut allergies
• February 2015: Fingers crossed: good news about preventing peanut allergies
• May 2010: Peanut allergies on the increase
• November 2008: Food allergies: OK to eat peanuts if pregnant?

Peanut allergies can be deadly.  If feeding kids a variety of foods early and often can head off food allergies, let’s go for it!