The Singular Triumph of Driving Down Peanut Allergies

In 2015, The New England Journal of Medicine published a major study showing that feeding babies peanut products significantly lowered their risk of developing peanut allergies.

The findings contradicted advice that the American Academy of Pediatrics had issued previously, which said that peanuts, along with other nuts and fish, should not be introduced until children are at least 3.

Based on the study—called the Learning Early About Peanut Allergy, or LEAP, trial—the AAP quickly revised its guidance.

Doctors had to scramble to adjust.

David Hill, a pediatrician who was working in North Carolina at the time, told me that he went from room to room in his practice, rummaging through drawers to gather up all the handouts that instructed parents not to give their infants peanuts.

“The information changed so dramatically,” he said, that he just threw the old pamphlets in the recycling bin.

Hill remembered getting “a lot of embrace and very little fear” from parents in response to the new instructions, which advised giving infants peanut products for the first time at as early as four months of age.

People seemed happy that they no longer needed to monitor their young kids’ diets for peanut traces.

“Absolving parents of this extra job of being the peanut police, it was greeted with a lot of relief,” he said.

Anisha Patel, a pediatrician at Stanford University, told me that in her community, families similarly have seemed “totally receptive” to the idea of early peanut introduction.

A pediatrician in Wisconsin, Dipesh Navsaria, told me, “I don’t think anyone has ever been surprised” by the new advice. [ Read: More American families are refusing vaccines ] The rollout of the new peanut regimen has not been perfect.

One small study showed that some parents were unsure about the purpose of early peanut introduction—some thought it was to test whether the baby is allergic to peanuts—and therefore might not follow the recommendation.

Not all pediatricians have adhered to the new guidance, because of a lack of awareness , disagreement with the guidelines, or time constraints during appointments—my son’s four-month visit was so hectic that my pediatrician didn’t mention anything about solid foods at all.

Still, lots of parents all over the United States seem to have implemented the advice, with good results: A study published last year found that the rate of peanut allergies in American kids under 3 decreased by 43 percent in the period after the new recommendations were put in place.