I'm relatively 'new' to allergies, but from some of the conversations with doctors there was a fear that repeated reactions (even minor) could be priming the body for worse reactions. This obviously goes against the results we are seeing now, but don't forget this is a very new area of study - people were only first diagnosed with food allergies in the 60s.
The original trial (I believe) came from a study that saw a certain Jewish community that eats a lot of powdered peanut, had a higher incidence of children losing their nut allergies. So the environment helped to prime these children.
My kid has allergies, and over the last 2 years we've seen the advice change rapidly - from initial suggestions to keep him away from anything that might cause him hives (soft play centres etc) to now where they encourage that (though obviously we still keep him away from eating allergens.
He had a laundry list of allergies that he responded to on his skin prick test last year, but his results yesterday were so much better - with the possibility that he only has 4 core responses left (peanuts, sesame, milk, egg) - with time still to lose those over time (he's only 3). We've been giving him loads of probiotics, namely Water Kefir - but no idea if he would have grown out of them anyway.
Happy to have a stab at any questions people might have - but I'm no expert, just a (reasonably) well read dad - my wife know far more than me about this.