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Australia starts peanut allergy treatment for babies

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Re: Australia starts peanut allergy treatment for babies

#131

Post by robxorb »

pc86 wrote: post #100
ascorbic wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's the opposite. The advice we were given was that it was very important that their first encounter with the allergens was to eat them, and not to allow skin contact or anything before that. This meant that with my youngest we had no peanuts in the house until she was old enough to eat solid food, and peanut butter was the first food she ate. It's still her favourite food!

> we had no peanuts in the house until she was old enough to eat solid food That seems like overkill. I can't imagine having peanuts or peanut butter in the pantry is going to meaningfully affect a 2 month old infant.

Makes sense to me.

If you're avoiding skin contact, then you might not have time to wipe the peanut butter mess off your hands as you rush to rescue your kid who's got into trouble.

Re: Australia starts peanut allergy treatment for babies

#132

Post by dminor »

eskibars wrote: post #9

Our son is very allergic to peanuts and less so to cashew, and sesame. We went through oral immunotherapy and it's been absolutely life changing. He used to need an epi pen in case of chance encounter, but now he eats 2 whole peanut m&ms every day to keep his dosage up. It's been difficult finding an allergist in Germany that's willing to accept this and move forward Obviously everyone's mileage will vary, but I'm ha…

I asked our allergist about oral immunotherapy for my daughter and he cited a study that found that avoidance was more effective in preventing severe reactions.

Re: Australia starts peanut allergy treatment for babies

#133

Post by sva_ »

gobins wrote: post #57
eskibars wrote: post #9

Our son is very allergic to peanuts and less so to cashew, and sesame. We went through oral immunotherapy and it's been absolutely life changing. He used to need an epi pen in case of chance encounter, but now he eats 2 whole peanut m&ms every day to keep his dosage up. It's been difficult finding an allergist in Germany that's willing to accept this and move forward Obviously everyone's mileage will vary, but I'm ha…

Wow that is really good to hear. I am on immunotherapy for a different type of allergy and can't stop talking about its effectiveness. It has been life changing.

I did a whole immunization against dust mites and I feel like it didn't work at all. q.q

I've been wondering if there's something else causing me to be allergic to them, like something I eat or so, idk. But I'll have to get tested again

Re: Australia starts peanut allergy treatment for babies

#134

Post by soperj »

curiousgal wrote: post #58
soperj wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia changed their recommendations to match this years ago, and the incidence of allergy didn't change measurably.

lol did they measure whether people were following the recommendations?

lol yes.

Re: Australia starts peanut allergy treatment for babies

#135

Post by User23 »

hammock wrote: post #85
praseodym wrote: post #2

In The Netherlands it is recommended to introduce peanut and egg to babies between 4 and 6 months, to reduce the chances of food allergy. More information (in Dutch): https://www.voedingscentrum.nl/nl/service/vraag-en-antwoord/...

Where does the peanut and egg allergy come from? My understanding is that peanut oil and egg albumin are ingredients in many common medicines given early to infants.. is there any chance that could be contributing?

It does make you wonder if we shouldn’t vaccinate until exposing the children to solid foods in ordinary healthy cases. The mother’s antibodies from her milk do good work.

There are other commenters warning about skin exposure before dietary exposure. If that’s true then it would make sense.

Re: Australia starts peanut allergy treatment for babies

#136

Post by soperj »

ascorbic wrote: post #62
praseodym wrote: post #2

In The Netherlands it is recommended to introduce peanut and egg to babies between 4 and 6 months, to reduce the chances of food allergy. More information (in Dutch): https://www.voedingscentrum.nl/nl/service/vraag-en-antwoord/...

My daughter took part in a large study that led to similar guidance being introduced in the UK. The was randomised into the early introduction group, which meant that she had to eat peanut, egg, cow's milk, fish, wheat and sesame on a regular schedule when she was a baby. It was interesting - though lots of work, and when she was old enough to understand why she was going up to London for the follow-up tests, she was…

> Overall, food allergy was lower in the group introduced to allergenic foods early but the difference was not statistically significant.

How is that proving the hypothesis?

Re: Australia starts peanut allergy treatment for babies

#137

Post by thomaslord »

Zach_the_Lizard wrote: post #119
rospaya wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Shouldn’t the burden be on them to avoid public spaces if they’re that sensitive? Depends how emphatic you are to your fellow human being. Peanuts aren't as important in most people's lives as actual people.

On the other hand, avoiding peanut exposure can cause an increase in allergies, so there's a feedback loop at play. The children who now have allergies, but wouldn't with past exposure levels, are more inconvenienced than the kid who can't eat a peanut butter sandwich at school. Attempting to make life better for all has unexpected twists and turns

The question is whether children who are already in school are likely to develop an allergy due to lack of exposure at that point in their lives. If the answer is no, the only downside is parents having to make a different sandwich for lunch.

I'm allergic to peanuts and none of my schools banned peanuts. When I was in elementary school, another kid chased me around with a peanut butter sandwich for a couple of minutes before the teachers were able to stop them. I'm not saying this will happen to all kids, but the options for bullying get kinda scary when an everyday food can kill you. Kids at that age may not understand how serious allergies can be, so there's also the more mundane risk of a child with an allergy trying somebody else's food without knowing it contains allergens.

Later on in middle school there was a single peanut-free table, where kids were eating peanut butter sandwiches for lunch every day before I arrived. Fortunately they were willing to bring something else once I told them I actually needed the peanut-free table to be peanut-free.

Re: Australia starts peanut allergy treatment for babies

#138

Post by lurking_swe »

t0mas88 wrote: post #120
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> introduce peanut and egg to babies between 4 and 6 months What goes wrong if they're exposed before that? If the mother eats peanuts and eggs while breast feeding, does that confer desensitisation?

It's the opposite. Usually babies don't eat any food at 4 months. They only get breastmilk or formula. The advice is to start early with peanutbutter and egg. In our case diary products were an issue instead of nuts. My daughter would get very sick from anything that had diary in it, even if my wife ate diary products while breastfeeding. But at about 1.5 years one she got over that and now at 4 she is completely fin…

(unrelated) friendly tip: i think you meant dairy. A diary is not edible. :)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diary

Re: Australia starts peanut allergy treatment for babies

#139

Post by azinman2 »

ahstilde wrote: post #54

Immunotherapy works. I run a company (YC w21) that wants to eliminate allergies forever. It's ancient medicine to manage symptoms with antihistamines when we can remove the root cause completely. Right now, we fix cat, dog, pet, pollen, and dust allergies. In a few years, we'll be doing nuts. Our launch HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26227807 company: https://www.wyndly.com/ book a visit with a doc: https:/…

I have some allergies that the allergy doc’s test doesn’t show; he said they are there but not by histamine reaction. Do you support these?

Also, what about things like gluten and dairy sensitivity?

Re: Australia starts peanut allergy treatment for babies

#140

Post by thomaslord »

grecy wrote: post #72
lupusreal wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like obvious bullshit. His story I mean, not yours. If his allergy were as bad as he claimed he would be a bubble boy or dead. It's not as if all of society around him could be cleansed of peanut residue as the camp supposedly was. If he went anywhere public without a bubble then by his account he'd be dead.

He was extremely careful not to touch much, and after meeting his parents they lived in constant terror

Yeah, the anxiety with serious food allergies is real. I haven't had a reaction in nearly 22 years and I don't even remember what it feels like, but religiously avoiding a dangerous food from a young age you can have some long-term mental effects. I was super responsible about it even as a young kid, but now I'm a picky eater and occasionally have a mini anxiety episode after eating new foods.
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