After years of advising parents not to make their children eat peanuts at least until they reach the age of three, doctors are turning this whole thing around. They now advise to give babies little servings of peanuts as early as possible, in the help that it will cull the rise of peanut allergies.
Peanut allergies are common, and they affects about 1 to 2 percent of the whole American population. Add to this the fact that peanut allergies carry a great risk of blocking the airways eventually leading to death, and it is easy to see why doctors forbid children to ingest peanuts at so young an age.
It makes sense from a logical perspective. No parent would want to risk an allergic reaction to peanuts at such a young age, so they follow the age-old advice. Yet recent research by pediatricians will probably change the view on peanuts in the years to come.
The Solution: Similar to How Vaccines Work
To understand how this new knowledge works and how it makes sense, we must first have a rough understanding of how vaccines work. See, when we administer vaccines, we actually expose kids to a little bit of mumps, rubella, or measles (for example). It just induces the immune system to learn how to fight those diseases at so early an age.
The logic behind the new research is almost similar. They thought that the rise in cases of peanut allergy was due to parents following the advice for years. They think that, on the contrary, babies should be exposed to peanuts as early as possible.
They believe that this will enable to body to learn how to process the food properly at an earlier age, much like how vaccines affect the immune system. After all, allergies happen because the body mistakes the chemicals in the food to be poisonous or harmful, and the system overreacts.
The new study also believes in teaching the bodies of children to process not only peanuts. This could also apply to other food products prone to allergy, like shellfish and cheese.
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