Feeding babies peanuts early helps them avoid allergies

Thousands of children have benefit, and the percentage of kids developing peanut allergies has dropped more than 40% since guidance became "feed them peanuts as early as 4 months of age."

"That's a remarkable thing, right?" said Dr. David Hill, an allergist and researcher at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and author of a study published Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics. Hill and colleagues analyzed electronic health records from dozens of pediatric practices to track diagnoses of food allergies in young children before, during and after the guidelines were issued.

"I can actually come to you today and say there are less kids with food allergy today than there would have been if we hadn't implemented this public health effort," he added.

About 60,000 children have avoided food allergies since 2015, including 40,000 children who otherwise would have developed peanut allergies. Still, about 8% of children are affected by food allergies, including more than 2% with a peanut allergy.

Peanut allergy is caused when the body's immune system mistakenly identifies proteins in peanuts as harmful and releases chemicals that trigger allergic symptoms, including hives, respiratory symptoms and, sometimes, life-threatening anaphylaxis.PBS

I wonder how the anti-vax, anti-science crowd will argue against this simply, well-proven advice. Seems certain they will, to their children's detriment.

Previously:
• How indirect allergen exposure works
• Bizarre 1941 footage shows women swimming in giant pool of peanuts at first festival
• RFK Jr establishes Soviet-style pre-approval system for 23 'controversial' research topics at National Cancer Institute
• Free tool helps dodge grant rejections as federal censorship expands