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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

#21

Post by 1970-01-01 »

nerpderp82 wrote: post #2

> 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…

>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.

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

#22

Post by firstlink »

guywithabike wrote: post #5
nerpderp82 wrote: post #2

> 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…

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.

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

#23

Post by [deleted] »

nerpderp82 wrote: post #2

> 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…

[deleted]

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

#24

Post by yread »

mirsadm wrote: post #17
llimllib wrote: post #10

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)

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

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

#25

Post by s1k3 »

jaywalk wrote: post #20
llimllib wrote: post #10

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)

I've heard a recommendation to do this in an ER parking lot for this reason.

The idea is you basically just touch their lips with a dab at first, so if there is any sort of reaction it isn’t life threatening. Then you increase a bit, etc.

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

#26

Post by s1k3 »

kspacewalk2 wrote: post #12

>Instead, eating peanut while the immune system is still developing - and learning to recognise friend from foe - can reduce allergic reactions, experts say. >Other studies have suggested introducing other foods linked to allergies - such as egg, milk and wheat - early also reduced allergy. I admit I haven't looked at studies, but this made such intuitive sense to us that we've been first giving both our sons very sm…

We did the same. My wife was nervous but I’m like, it’s common sense.

We did hold off on honey until they were one due to the botulism risk tho.

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

#27

Post by unixgoddess »

nerpderp82 wrote: post #2

> 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…

however, there are other factors to keep in mind.

you mention giving your chewed up food: I read a few years ago that babies who sleep in the same bed as the parents have a much higher mortality rate; assuming it's true, I guess that with mouth to mouth germ exchange it would be even worse.

Also, a lot of food today is full of chemical residues etc that are tolerated by adults, not quite so by babies.

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

#28

Post by jonhohle »

numbers_guy wrote: post #14

Where does peanut allergy come from anyway? The first time I heard about it was on American TV sitcoms. Two decades later we have EPIPENs in our schools too, but in my childhood food allergies were never discussed at all. Not a single mention at all.

In my late 30s I developed a legume allergy (including peanuts). Not knowing much about child peanut allergies (we gave all of our kids peanut butter from an early age), I’ve had to adjust my own life to avoiding peanuts, soy, and so many delicious beans.

My symptoms are just gastro related, so it’s probably not the same as childhood peanut allergies, though.

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

#29

Post by nukeman »

soperj wrote: 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.

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

#30

Post by s1k3 »

soperj wrote: 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.
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