For years, conventional wisdom has been to keep food containing peanuts away from children before their first birthdays. The food guidelines have completed shifted.
The National Institue of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has set a road map for parents in three categories.
For high-risk babies, those who have been assessed to have severe eczema, and/or an egg allergy, it is recommended to introduce peanut-based foods at 4 to 6 months in the presence of a doctor.
For babies with mild or low risk of developing a food allergy, new guidelines suggest introducing peanut foods at 6 months. No supervision of a doctor is needed.
The food guideline recommends continuing with about 2 teaspoons of peanut butter three days a week. They advocate getting 6 to 8 grams of protein a week to help prevent the peanut allergy. The peanut butter should be pureed with water.
“We actually have evidence now that it does make a difference.”
Dr. Matt Taller, a food allergist at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, says he has known it for some time, however research now backs it.
Dr. Taller suggest consulting with your doctor before testing for the allergy.
“If you've never ingested the food before and you do have a positive allergy test, it's only about the flip of a coin as far as predicting if you have an allergy or not,” said Tallar.
Be sure and try our new SNOWCAST APP! It is the "snow equivalent to STORM SHIELD" - a great new product that gives you high resolution snow forecasts for any part of the nation! It has just been introduced for iPhones, but we are working on the Android version! Just search SNOWCAST in the App Store or click here.
