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Give babies peanut butter to cut peanut allergies, study says

bbc.com

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Re: Give babies peanut butter to cut peanut allergies, study says

#51

> Food allergies are the result of our immune system mistaking something harmless for a severe threat. If you IDS has never seen X and X is unlike anything it has seen, it will probably flag it. > There had been long-standing advice to avoid foods that can trigger allergies during early childhood. At one point, families were once told to avoid peanut until their child was three years old. This advice was never based…

> If you IDS has never seen X and X is unlike anything it has seen, it will probably flag it.

It's a whole lost more complicated than this, see for example antigens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigen and epitopes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epitope

Re: Give babies peanut butter to cut peanut allergies, study says

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how widespread this advice is, but my son’s pediatrician had us start introducing peanut butter before he was eating solids by adding progressively more peanut butter to his bottle. So it feels like this is becoming the recommended approach to avoiding food allergies.

Essentially illegal in the US though, given school requirements.

How many kids do you think there are in schools who aren't eating solid foods yet?

Re: Give babies peanut butter to cut peanut allergies, study says

#53
post #16

This is not new news, but nonetheless important to replicate and keep studying. I think the first often-cited study about this was in 2008 [1]. There are several more, including one in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2015 [2]. Basically, the original study looked at Jewish kids in Israel versus the UK and saw that peanut allergies were about 10x lower in Israel, even though Jews of European background (Ashkena…

Bamba is also delicious. The fat content from the peanut butter gives it a good body, like a cheese puff. If you decide to get some for your kid, get some extra for yourself.

I'm pretty sure most of the fat content comes from the palm oil, but I don't disagree with your conclusion.

Re: Give babies peanut butter to cut peanut allergies, study says

#54
post #4

> Food allergies are the result of our immune system mistaking something harmless for a severe threat. If you IDS has never seen X and X is unlike anything it has seen, it will probably flag it. > There had been long-standing advice to avoid foods that can trigger allergies during early childhood. At one point, families were once told to avoid peanut until their child was three years old. This advice was never based…

Did I not read at some point that nursing mother eating the allergenic foods offer some benefits to the child as well?

This is one of those grandma’s tales that I’ve heard. Feeding pregnant women (and nursing mothers) a diet that is varied in nature allows the child to be healthier and allergy free.

Re: Give babies peanut butter to cut peanut allergies, study says

#55
post #42
post #16

This is not new news, but nonetheless important to replicate and keep studying. I think the first often-cited study about this was in 2008 [1]. There are several more, including one in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2015 [2]. Basically, the original study looked at Jewish kids in Israel versus the UK and saw that peanut allergies were about 10x lower in Israel, even though Jews of European background (Ashkena…

For anyone wondering, Trader Joe's sells these in the US! They're great, and they're "real" Bamba and not a TJ's replica.

Target sells them too:

https://www.target.com/p/osem-bamba-peanut-butter-baby-puffs...

Re: Give babies peanut butter to cut peanut allergies, study says

#56
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Train how you live as soon as possible. There are dangerous caveats to this advice! For example, don't feed infants fish or shellfish more than this allergy test. They contain one of the highest levels of mercury in the entire food web. Best to wait until the they've grown.

Unless you feed them huge quantities of seafood, I fail to see how this is an issue. From an allergy standpoint small exposure would be enough to reduce risk of developing an allergy.

The new FDA risk-benefit analysis is currently ongoing and will be published later this year. Right now, it's no more than 2oz/week for certain fish.

https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/the-role-of-seafo...

Re: Give babies peanut butter to cut peanut allergies, study says

#57

If you do this, be prepared with benadryl and be ready to handle the situation if your kid does have an allergy. Speaking from experience, here. Wife is an ER doc and it was still a scary situation. (He's fine, but still has the allergy 7 years later)

Similar experience, our first kid ate peanut butter happily for two years or so, then developed more and more of an allergy. It was gradual, basically the reverse experience of developing a tolerance as many others experience.

Re: Give babies peanut butter to cut peanut allergies, study says

#58
post #29
post #19

Somehow all the studies end up being on jewish kids in Isreal vs. jewish kids in England. Not exactly a representative sample of people across the globe. The studies themselves have all the hallmarks of shit science, but everyone on here seems to agree with it because it fits their world view.

The entire point was looking at very similar populations, but controlling for one variable (peanut product consumption in early childhood). While I agree that the studies should be expanded outward to ensure reproducibility and verify the hypothesis, a useful starting point is to look at two similar populations with only one variable.

That original study was made 8 or 9 years ago now, and they're following it up with an additional study of jewish kids in britain and israel here. If you look at the study, they're trying to determine why early exposure to peanut butter has not decreased the incidence of allergy in Australia. Somehow a study of Jewish kids in Israel & Britain is supposed to prove this out.

Re: Give babies peanut butter to cut peanut allergies, study says

#59
post #24
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah we gave our 6 month old peanut butter and ended up in hospital. This happened during the Covid lockdowns so it was quite scary. The recommendation here is to give them the food and see if they are allergic. I'm not sure I would follow that guideline again.

Same here, started with peanut butter and egg for a 4 month old. Now has allergies for both. I guess it works across populations. Or the research is wrong

I have 3 kids 3 and under, no twins. We did a similar thing around 5-6 months. They hate eggs with a passion but no allergies. About to start the peanut butter trials with my 5 month old.

We did the same with shrimp and oysters. My son loves seafood gumbo and made a whole restaurant turn around when he first tried it. He loves it.

Have you stopped trying allergic foods?

Re: Give babies peanut butter to cut peanut allergies, study says

#60
post #30
post #19

Somehow all the studies end up being on jewish kids in Isreal vs. jewish kids in England. Not exactly a representative sample of people across the globe. The studies themselves have all the hallmarks of shit science, but everyone on here seems to agree with it because it fits their world view.

Well the opposite view isn’t really based on science , only in faulty risk mitigation. So is it riskier to let your kid go without knowing for a long time or is it better to test in a limited controlled window where you can react and adapt if something goes wrong.

Neither is based on Science when the science is shit. P-hacking isn't science, and yet it gets published as Science all the time, particularly in nutrition studies.
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