Peanut allergies may be caused by anxious mothers

13 April 2012

Many experts believe the current advice to parents to keep peanuts away from their babies may be making the problem worse.

In Africa, Asia and China, where peanuts are a staple food and routinely given to young children, rates of peanut allergy are lower than they are in the West.

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Other research suggests the opposite - that early exposure to peanuts makes an individual more susceptible.

Parents are being asked to volunteer their babies for a major investigation into the causes of peanut allergy.

The £5 million seven-year study will aim to find out whether exposing infants to peanuts lessens or increases the risk of an allergy developing.

All 480 babies taking part will be aged between four months and 11 months, and already have eczema or an allergy to eggs.

Studies have shown that a quarter of these infants will develop a peanut allergy, which in some cases can induce a lethal reaction.

Between five per cent and eight per cent of children develop a food allergy by the age of two or three. Around one in 70 children have an allergy to peanuts, double the figure a decade ago.

Despite the dangers of peanut allergy, the British scientists conducting the trial insist the children will be safe.

"It is certainly not the case that we are putting children at risk," said lead researcher Professor Gideon Lack, from King's College, London.

"We've thought very deeply about this study. Our current policies may be the root of the problem, we don't know, but simply to sit back and accept the situation we believe would be unethical."

All the children would be carefully looked after and rigorously monitored by dieticians, he said.

They will be randomly separated into two groups. One will receive snacks containing six grams of peanuts a week - the equivalent of 10 to 20 peanuts - for three years. The other infants will be given a diet completely devoid of peanuts.

Both groups will be assessed for peanut allergy at the age of five.

The study, named Leap (Learning Early About Peanut allergies), is based at the new Evelina Children's Hospital at St Thomas's Hospital in London.

Prof Lack belongs to an allergy-investigating team at the London-based MRC-Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma.

He said: "Determining whether avoidance or early exposure to peanuts prevents the development of peanut allergy and understanding how this happens will have important clinical implications.

"Our study findings may result in a change in public health policy to prevent food allergies and will enable scientists to identify important treatment targets to try and develop cures for children who already suffer from peanut allergy."

Guidelines in the UK and USA currently recommend avoidance of peanuts during pregnancy, breast feeding, and for the first three years of childhood.

Professor Tak Lee, director of the MRC-Asthma UK Centre, said: "The evidence to support current guidelines for preventing peanut and other food allergies is lacking. This large trial should provide robust evidence to help inform the right course of action as well as offering a unique opportunity to investigate how and why food allergies develop."

Interested parents who have a child under 11 months of age with eczema or an egg allergy are invited to contact the Leap study team by telephoning 020 7188 9784, or emailing info@leapstudy.co.uk.

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