Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

New NIH guidelines on infants and peanuts may contradict everything you’ve heard before

The Washington Post: When my husband and I had our first child seven years ago, the prevailing wisdom was that babies at risk of allergies should avoid peanuts or peanut products until age 3 or older. The idea behind this restriction — which was based on American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines released in 2000 — was that feeding peanuts too early to little ones might risk severe, possibly life-threatening allergic reactions. Over the years that thinking has done a 180. Now, scientists believe the exact opposite: Giving your baby peanuts earlier rather than later might prevent them from developing an allergy. While many doctors and medical groups have come out over the past year to endorse this view, there has been a lot of confusion about which kids could benefit from early exposure, the optimal timing of the exposure, and how exactly one should feed peanuts (which, after all, are a choking hazard in their raw form) to babies.

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