Peanut allergies could ‘plummet’ by 71% with simple new intervention

1487 points by Hashirama4AP 1 year, 6 months ago on reddit | 86 comments

I thought this has been known for a few years now

thedancingkat | 1 year, 6 months ago

It has. However a lot of new parents don’t know it - I guess since millennials (at least my age group for sure) grew up with the absolute being absolutely terrified of peanuts since it could likely kill someone we knew. When I tell parents the new data/recommendations they’re always super chill and often excited about it.

Sauce: Peds RD

SausaugeMerchant | 1 year, 6 months ago

> I guess since millennials (at least my age group for sure) grew up with the absolute being absolutely terrified of peanuts since it could likely kill someone we knew.

This is the first I'm hearing about this epidemic of peanut allergy and I am firmly in the millennial age group, I did know a diabetic and 2 goths

greengardenmoss | 1 year, 6 months ago

Is there any treatment for the goths?

SausaugeMerchant | 1 year, 6 months ago

Unfortunately not

xXThreeRoundXx | 1 year, 6 months ago

There is a Goth2Boss program, however.

giantyetifeet | 1 year, 6 months ago

Wow, just curious roughly what region did you grow up in, if it's OK to ask?

SausaugeMerchant | 1 year, 6 months ago

Scotland

I’ve never heard of this either and I’m in the US. I never even thought about peanut allergies growing up. I had PBJ sandwiches all the time at school

thedancingkat | 1 year, 6 months ago

I appreciate your times with the goths.

No but seriously, my school had the fear of god put into us because a classmate was deathly allergic to peanuts. I had even changed schools across the state and it was the same fear

SuspiriaGoose | 1 year, 6 months ago

Had a kid so allergic they banned peanuts completely, including stuff that may contain it. He was still hospitalized multiple times until he was forced to homeschool.

octopush123 | 1 year, 6 months ago

It was brought up at well-baby visits for our first, 3 years ago. Pretty much when it was time to start solids

thedancingkat | 1 year, 6 months ago

So glad to hear that! I am in a super specialized speciality so I only see a certain patient populations but their dietary restrictions are a huge part of their diagnosis. That being said every time I talk about the “no” foods, I always say “this does not affect your diagnosis), but I strongly encourage you to try peanuts for your baby because the new evidence shows it’s actually helpful and prevents peanut allergies”

Yeah, well, it can't be that easy.

Winter 2019 my youngest kid is getting mobile and exploring the house more and more, and starts real food around the same time. Starts getting a weird rash. Can't pin it down, we've been carefully and slowly introducing allergens, per our pediatricians recommendation, and hadn't yet introduced peanuts.

Feb 2020, we bring him to an allergist at Boston Children's who does an allergy test. Comes up positive for peanuts. We switch our other kid off peanut butter and younger kid clears up (I imagine at this point in time, our house was covered in a thin film of peanut proteins. I know my oldest certainly was anytime he ate it). Funny thing was, we were so certain that it wasn't going to be peanuts, we actually packed the older kid a peanut butter sandwich for lunch for that trip to BCH. We ended up eating out.

We get offered to be put into a clinical trial for peanut exposure therapy, he can enter at his young age but he has to take a tolerance test first. We schedule out the tolerance test for April. It's an monitored, controlled exposure type of test.

March 2020 happens and the whole world turns to crap. They start postponing voluntary and non-emergency labs and procedures like this, which makes total sense.

By the time they can start accepting us for the tolerance test, he's too old for the clinical.

Apparently there's another trial he's eligible for, but they are still going through a huge backlog of tolerance tests. We scheduled the tolerance test last June. It'll be in this October.

VanSeineTotElbe | 1 year, 6 months ago

It's basic info told to parents of newborns around here.

Edard_Flanders | 1 year, 6 months ago

Can we get a TLDR please?

[OP] Hashirama4AP | 1 year, 6 months ago

TLDR:

Scientists have found a simple new method to reduce the rate of people suffering from a peanut allergy by a staggering 71 per cent.

How? By feeding a child peanuts regularly between the ages of four months old and five years old. What’s more, the method works even if the child then continues to eat peanuts or avoids them entirely after the age of five

Edard_Flanders | 1 year, 6 months ago

So in all reality, you just tell parents to stop being so damn paranoid about feeding nuts to their kids, and the majority of the problem goes away?

ajnorthcutt2s | 1 year, 6 months ago

Not quite, it’s not a problem of parental paranoia as most allergies are discovered following initial exposure and development of symptoms. So then the parent is left with the question of what to do next? Historically the answer has been “avoid, avoid, avoid!” Recently, it’s been shown that controlled dosing escalations of several types of allergens (tree nuts, peanuts, dairy, shellfish, etc) results in a lessening or elimination of symptoms. A game changer for many! I’ll swear by it, personally.

Source: Parent of a child who underwent Oral Immunotherapy (OIT) for peanut.

Gram-GramAndShabadoo | 1 year, 6 months ago

Micro dosing peanuts.

Micro nutting

Too soon

I've got a little cousin who was microdosed dairy to get over a lactose intolerance/dairy allergy. It's fascinating that she never really ate chocolate (for obvious reasons) and as an older kid now still doesn't care for it.

ThunderbunsAreGo | 1 year, 6 months ago

I’ve been eating popular allergens all of my pregnancy as a ‘just in case’ including the ones that my husband is sensitive to (peach hide and coconut flesh). I’ll be adding it all into her diet gradually when she’s old enough to start solids and keeping my fingers crossed that early exposure helps.

Jennyflurlynn | 1 year, 6 months ago

My mom ate a ton of peanut butter during her pregnancy and I'm still deathly allergic to peanuts and other nuts.

[OP] Hashirama4AP | 1 year, 6 months ago

Hmm, may be exactly not! it would be much better to introduce in small quantities under the guidance of a medical team :) [My personal opinion]

giantyetifeet | 1 year, 6 months ago

Sounds more like the "Meh, some of your young will die, but fret not, the majority will be able to enjoy peanut butter going forward".

Is this new? My daughter is 6 and we've been told exactly that by doctors before she was even born.

ZucchiniMore3450 | 1 year, 6 months ago

It is not new at all, this was advice for, at least, the last forty years. Maybe longer.

People are just in 'avoid everything' mode and no one can suggest any other solution.

So we just go back to how it used to be.

Stormcloudy | 1 year, 6 months ago

IIRC we've anecdotally known this for a long time. The Israeli population has very low incidences of peanut allergy due to the popularity of peanut candy, peanut butter, etc.

And Bamba.

misterfluffykitty | 1 year, 6 months ago

I read about something like this back in like 2012. I feel like it’s just going to be repeatedly discovered and then forgotten about because people don’t want their kids to have an allergic reaction

Should they even be allowed to be parents if they don't give their kids pb and j? Like, that's child abuse.

Cool. This contradicts what my kids allergist at BCH has been saying since he was 7 months old.

We've been waiting for tolerance tests to get him into trials for this type of stuff but BCH is the only place around that does it, and though we've been on cancel lists, we are still scheduled for next October.

He'll be turning 5 next week.

Initialised | 1 year, 6 months ago

Allergies come from lack of exposure to the ‘allergen’ at a young age.

sbattistella | 1 year, 6 months ago

This is false. My son had his first reaction at 6 months old.

I mean, my kids didn't start solids till ~9-10+ months. But... I breastfed. And I definitely ate peanuts - and everything else. They don't have *any* allergies.

But... we are also out in the country, on a small farm, and so they are/were exposed to a HUGE variety of 'allergens', etc from pretty much day 1.

sbattistella | 1 year, 6 months ago

I breastfed all of my kids, and they all have food allergies. It's almost like it's genetic or something.

Initialised | 1 year, 6 months ago

No, allergies are usually developmental issues with the immune system, lack of exposure either via antibodies in breast milk or within their environment.

sbattistella | 1 year, 6 months ago

Cite your sources.

Signal-Blackberry356 | 1 year, 6 months ago

We have known the best treatment to allergies was microdosing your own allergen. Early introduction to a wide variety in diet is important.

igotadillpickle | 1 year, 6 months ago

This is also why countries who are known to consume allergens like these from young ages and frequently, have the lowest rates of allergic reactions. I knew the research years ago and ate a ton of peanut butter while pregnant and breastfeeding. I even introduced it as soon as they could eat any form of solids. Edit: thanks for the award!

Not if you dont trust science or doctors!

I've always wondered why I don't know a single person in India with a food allergy. But do know Indian-origin people in other countries who did, so clearly not a genetic thing.

[OP] Hashirama4AP | 1 year, 6 months ago

TLDR:

Scientists have found a simple new method to reduce the rate of people suffering from a peanut allergy by a staggering 71 per cent.

How? By feeding a child peanuts regularly between the ages of four months old and five years old. What’s more, the method works even if the child then continues to eat peanuts or avoids them entirely after the age of five.

I like to add that when our son was born our doctor told us to avoid peanuts. He later developed a peanut allergy. We found out a few years later that the advice was opposite to this. I know a lot of people often like to paint parents as being too precious/cautious and causing the problem in these regards.

SimpleEdge8000 | 1 year, 6 months ago

Curious, I developed a peanut (and nuts in general) allergy in my early 20s after being able to eat peanuts/nuts for years (although I didn’t eat said products on a weekly “regular” basis) …I wouldn’t say my experience says this advice is wrong, but I do feel like there are outlier situations.

Candid-Sky-3709 | 1 year, 6 months ago

i guess if it works 70% you might be the remaining 30%?

hard-time-on-planet | 1 year, 6 months ago

The 70% stat is one thing but another stat that would probably apply even more to what the other comment is saying

> The researchers discovered that 15.4 per cent of children who had avoided peanuts as young children developed peanut allergies after the age of 12, compared to only 4.4 per cent in the group who had early exposure.

So sounds like the commenter is one of the unlucky 4.4%

Furbyparadox | 1 year, 6 months ago

This is how my food allergy developed too, I ate my allergen my entire life nearly daily and one day my body just said fuck you and I became severely allergic 🤷🏻‍♀️

NoiseChemical6093 | 1 year, 6 months ago

Me too but for cats 😭 (as pets not eating)

Me too, for wheat in my mid 30s.

Parents feeding their children a variety of foods instead of just chicken nuggets and buttery noodles?

tysonfromcanada | 1 year, 6 months ago

one of our kids showed signs of a mild lactose tolerance issue. The nurse's suggestion: "get her conditioned to milk or you'll be dealing with an allergy. Peanuts too"

Long time ago. This has been well known.

This was already known to work with Pollen and I believe bee stings too (which I appear to be allergic to, nice!)

Not sure how we didn't come across this fact earlier in all honesty..

My mom knew about this "intervention" in the 80s. It's just common sense really

BeastofBurden | 1 year, 6 months ago

It’s how my parents inoculated me against bee stings. I had to get shots for years.

I knew this more than a decade ago. The 2000s allergic babies were caused by the recommendation of a large medical association, I think it was the National Association of Pediatricians.

In other countries, as in the middle east. Children consume peanuts since early on and there peanut allergies are non-existent.

distressinglycontent | 1 year, 6 months ago

How does this help people who’ve developed deadly allergies in their 20s and so on despite eating peanuts their entire childhood?

real_billmo | 1 year, 6 months ago

I introduced both my kids to peanuts at a young age (as babies). Both ended up with full blown rashes and swelling. Needless to say, both are allergic to peanuts.

I guess this only works for some.

vulgarvinyasa2 | 1 year, 6 months ago

I’ve been giving my 2yo peanut since 5 months. I thought this was common knowledge by now.

MotherSupermarket532 | 1 year, 6 months ago

It was thr advice when my 5 year old was a baby.  Bambas are particularly easy for infants to eat as a finger food (and then just peanut butter as they get bigger).

Peanuts hate this one trick…

Destinlegends | 1 year, 6 months ago

And it will only cost peanuts!

Brilliant.

Simpawknits | 1 year, 6 months ago

Pharmacist here. Definitely true. Immune system is still checking things out a bit until five years or so and can be trained somewhat.

I’m a boomer with a peanut allergy. The only person I’ve heard of older than me with this allergy is President Carter’s brother. But I’ve noticed that the allergy has weakened with age. Smelling peanuts doesn’t bother me so much any more, and I can even eat one or two, if they’re mixed in with other food.

Feeding it while pregnant and nursing is supposed to help. As long as you have no family history of allergies. Moms were giving peanut butter while parked just outside of a not busy emergency room if they had allergies. Tons of chatter on moms groups. Clear it with your doctor if you have ANY concerns.

photo-manipulation | 1 year, 6 months ago

TLDR:

Scientists have discovered a simple new way to reduce the number of people suffering from corn allergies by an astounding 71 percent.

how? By feeding your baby peanuts regularly from four months to five years. What's more, the method then works even if the child eats peanuts or avoids them altogether after the age of five

photo-manipulation | 1 year, 6 months ago

TLDR:

Scientists have discovered a simple new way to reduce the number of people suffering from corn allergies by an astounding 71 percent.

how? By feeding your baby peanuts regularly from four months to five years. What's more, the method then works even if the child eats peanuts or avoids them altogether after the age of five

It’s also worth mentioning that higher allergies in the west can be attributed to birth in the hospital, C sections, and sterile conditions. This can’t go without mentioning that these things are also what keep babies alive.

BetterTransit | 1 year, 6 months ago

Just give your kids some Bamba and they will be fine

TL:DR

Natural selection

Issue with nut allergy is run off water etc. Contaminate the nuts. Which in turn cause allergies with them.

The issue is rancid nuts. Very few people are allergic to non-rancid nuts

Right... my og point stands. Run off, low standard of processing plants ( cleanest), should I go on?

Yes please