Advice to feed babies peanuts early and often helped 60,000 kids avoid allergies, study finds

"That's a remarkable thing, right?"

"I can actually come to you today and say there are less kids with food allergy today than there would have been if we hadn't implemented this public health effort,"

Analysis of pediatric electronic health records shows peanut allergies among children ages 0–3 declined more than 27% after 2015 guidance for high-risk infants and more than 40% after 2017 expansion. Guidelines recommended introducing peanut-containing foods as early as four months, replacing prior advice to delay introduction until age three. The change is estimated to have prevented about 60,000 cases of childhood peanut allergy. Overall food allergy prevalence has not declined and still affects roughly 8% of children, including over 2% with peanut allergy. Peanut allergy symptoms range from hives and respiratory issues to life-threatening anaphylaxis.

Read at Boston.com