Early exposure to peanuts and eggs reduces risk of food allergies

Food allergies are an increasing problem, and for affected people treatment is often limited to avoiding the trigger food. But a comprehensive study from the UK has now found that introducing interestingly, the correlation is clear even when subjects didn’t stick strictly to the regime. children to certain foods at an early age is associated with a lower risk of developing allergies – and

Given the cutesy name of the Enquiring About Tolerance (EAT) study, the research recruited more than 1,300 infants from England and Wales. The children were split into two groups – the Early Introduction Group (EIG) was given allergenic foods like eggs and peanuts from three months of age, alongside their regular breastfeeding. For the Standard Introduction Group (SIG), these foods were held off until six months of age.

The results were pretty clear, and were analyzed in three new papers. Children who were introduced to the foods early had a much lower rate of allergies to them later on, compared to the children who avoided the foods until later. For those kids that showed signs of sensitivity to some kind of food when the study started, 34.2 percent of them went on to develop a full-blown allergy if they waited six months. Only 19.2 percent of those exposed at three months developed allergies.

Importantly, it goes the other way too. For those who weren’t at a high risk of allergies, introducing foods early didn’t increase their risk of developing allergies. This undercuts some earlier assumptions and recommendations that children should avoid allergenic foods until six months of age.