For years, paediatricians recommended that peanuts should be included in children’s diets as late as possible as highly allergenic. Their food was to be avoided by mothers who were breastfeeding their babies. The BBC has just announced the results of an American study that totally changes the rules of children’s nutrition.
Babies should eat nuts as early as possible, even from the age of four months. Why? Because it reduces the risk that they will become allergic in the future. American research has shown that introducing nuts in the diet early reduces the risk of a nut allergy by 80 percent!
Their results were announced by The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He called it a great medical step forward, as the number of allergy sufferers has been increasing dramatically since 2008, not only in the US and Western countries, but also in Asia and Africa. James Gallagher, a reporter for the BBC, was the first to write about the revolution in allergy.
Until now, doctors and nutritionists advised parents not to give their children nuts until they are at least three years old. They were also on the list of products prohibited in the diet of pregnant women and nursing mothers.
The only group of children who should not receive nuts from the age of four months, but only two months later, i.e. when they are six months old, are those with protein blemishes.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said: “We expect that introducing nuts in every infant’s diet will prevent the development of nut allergy for generations of Americans. Similar reports come from the UK where a similar experiment was conducted. His result was identical ».
British professor Alan Boobis of Imperial College London, announced: “Our research has looked at children’s consumption of peanuts, but the same is true of other foods. The current view that delaying the introduction of allergenic foods reduces the risk of food allergy is erroneous. Quite the opposite is true of excluding or delaying the introduction of certain allergenic foods. May increase the risk of allergies ».
Pediatricians advise introducing nuts in the diet of young children in the form of peanut butter so as not to expose them to choking.