Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/prevent-allergies-by-giving-babies-peanut-based-food-health-officials-say-1.12868558

Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

DS is 7 and has a nut allergy. If I had another baby, I would talk to my son's allergist first before giving a baby a "small" amount of peanut products. The term "small" is vague and I'm wondering if this could cause some babies issues.

Re: Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

This is not a new concept. just like getting sick, years ago people allowed their kids to play in the "dirt", eat the dirt which naturally allows ones body to build up resistance. At one time people didn't use antibacterial wipes, soap etc. People didnt have to wash their hands to touch a baby or toddler. Over the last 10 or more years the need to sterilize everything has caused more problems than good.

lack of exposure can be worse verses letting the body natural become resistant

Message edited 1/6/2017 8:35:50 AM.

Re: Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

This isn't really new. DS has a peanut allergy. His allergist wanted DD tested as a baby. She tested negative and the allergist told me to feed her pb as soon as possible. Well, a year later I still haven't. Mostly because we don't keep pb in the house (b/c of DS's allergy) so it isn't something I can easily feed her.

Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

while i understand the concept, i'm not sure i agree. many kids have egg and milk allergies too and those foods are typically introduced much earlier than nuts. my DS has a nut allergy and he was exposed during pregnancy and nursing for 18 months. DS#2 was not exposed (and still not) but was tested and has no food allergies. i think there is something else going on here that has contributed to the rise in food allergies.

Re: Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

This was all over the news yesterday. There's actually a few Specialists out there who will treat life-threatening peanut allergies by giving them small amounts of peanuts every day. I've read about this and a local group, and many parents have had success with it. So it would make sense

Re: Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

I'm very interested in this- DD is 8 months and I want to give her some peanut-based foods but I don't know what to start with. Any ideas?

Re: Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

I don't know because even when ds2 was really little (6 months maybe) if the rest of us so much as eat pb near him his skin would break out pretty bad. I'm afraid if I fed him even a spoonful I could have accidentally killed him! Maybe under a doctor's supervision in the office but I'd be afraid to do it otherwise.

Re: Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

This isn't really all that new but I know it was all over the news yesterday. However, I hope parents realize that if they do want to expose their child to peanuts or other high allergen foods early, they should do it in a safe place and under the guidance of an allergist, regardless if they are considered high-risk or not. Just in case.

We do not have a family history of food allergies. None. Yet we found out about my daughter's allergies when she was 4.5 months old (all milk and egg components, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, and mango). Even though she didn't eat any solids until 6 months, she was still having allergic reactions and severe eczema before that because I was eating all of those foods she's allergic to and it was passed through breastmilk. Her numbers are crazy high and she is anaphylactic. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if I decided to let her try a peanut product as a 4 month old (as recommended in the new guidelines) right before I found out about her allergies

Message edited 1/6/2017 5:49:04 PM.

Re: Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

I asked my Dr about when to give it to Jillian and he said he agreed with the sooner the better.

Re: Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

Re: Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

I had to take ds to an allergist due to a reaction to a medication when he was 6 months old and the allergist recommended giving him peanut butter as early as possible. He was eating pb&j sandwiches daily before 1yo. We did the same with dd. I just made sure that the first time they had it wasn't on a Sunday and made sure we were home in case of any emergency. This was only 3 years ago. No one ever recommended waiting until 3 years old before giving anything.

Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

My daughter is 18 months and we quickly ended up in the hospital after giving her a peanut based treat. Now she has the epi-pen.Turns out, her blood work shows an allergy to peanut and sesame.

Message edited 1/9/2017 9:19:51 PM.

Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

Dh and I always eat peanut butter. I think dd was somewhere between 6-8m when she had her first taste. I don't think it was intentional she just grabbed it. Hours later we were like oops she has peanut butter and was fine. Same with eggs. I'm pregnant again so I don't know what we will do. I'm sure we will know if dd#2 has any type of reaction but I may be a bit more concerned this time. Dd was our trial by fire baby.

Re: Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

My experience is a little different than most since we adopted our DD. When we got her in China at 10 months she was eating everything that they say kids shouldn't, raw honey, peanut butter, eggs, citrus fruits, berries. They had no restrictions. You should have seen the panic in all us American mothers faces when we saw what they were eating lol. No allergies in the whole group that were adopted together. Our only issue was milk as it turned out most of the kids were lactose intolerant and were drinking goat milk.

Re: Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

Our dr recommended putting a tiny bit of pb on the baby's tongue.

Re: Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

Re: Prevent allergies by giving babies peanut-based food, health officials say

When my dd was diagnosed with egg and milk allergies our doctors did challenges and also had us start peanut butter. I am really thankful for them urging us to do so many years before these new regulations came out.