Food Allergy Prevention in the Next Generation

Food allergies, sensitivities and intolerance's are a hot topic these days. It seems that every day someone new is telling you about another food item they can not eat.  

I will tell you I have some food intolerance's, for instance: I don't tolerate food served cold that should be piping hot, I don't tolerate mustard, and I don't tolerate pickles, never liked them much. In fact as a child, I remember telling people I was allergic to mustard because I just didn't like the taste. This is funny to me now. Anyways, this is not the point of my blog article today. 

As with all generations, we want our children to have a better "go" at things than we ourselves had. And I would like to say, I hope we ALL feel that way with regard to allergies. A new study put out by The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that from 1997-2011, children with food allergies increased about 50% in the US. So rates are on the rise. Many people believe as the rates go up so should our avoidance of certain common allergens, but this is not the case. 

A recent study was the first of it's kind where a randomized trial evaluated if early peanut exposure would prevent food allergies from developing in infants that were at higher risk of developing peanut allergies by age 5. Amazingly, the study showed that infants exposed to peanuts in the first 11 months of life were at a significantly decreased risk of developing peanut allergies. 

Of course, if you suspect that your child is at high risk of developing a peanut allergy, you should discus the introduction of this food into your infants diet with your physician before doing so.  

I find this information very encouraging, that the introduction of a food in early life can train the immune system that this food is "okay" and not harmful for the body. 

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