Babies Who Eat Peanuts Early May Avoid Allergy
Gathering Evidence
Lack designed a study to test his idea, a theory some of his colleagues quietly discounted.
“I was extremely skeptical about this because I felt there had to be other factors involved,” says Allen, who is running a large study of peanut allergies in Australia.
Lack looked for babies who were known to be at high risk for getting nut allergies because they were already allergic to another protein -- egg protein -- or they had eczema, a skin condition that’s closely linked to allergies.
He gave every child a skin test to see if they would react to peanut protein before they entered the study.
In skin testing, allergists scratch the skin with a little bit of the extract of allergen. If a red, irritated spot forms where the allergen was placed, it means a person is probably sensitive to it. The larger the red spot, the bigger the reaction a person is likely to have to the allergen if they eat or breathe it in.
Babies who had marked reactions -- they developed a red spot on their skin larger than 4 millimeters -- were kept out of the study for fear that it would be too dangerous for them.
The others, 640 in total, were randomly split into two groups. Parents in the first group were told to feed them peanut snacks -- either Bamba or peanut butter -- three times a week. The amount of peanut protein they were getting was relatively small -- the amount in about 24 peanuts -- spread over three weekly meals. (It’s not a good idea to feed babies whole peanuts because they’re a choking hazard.)
Parents in the second group were told to avoid peanut products for their babies.