New Research: Don’t Wait To Feed Your Kids Peanuts

Currently, more than 50 million Americans suffer an allergy, according to the CDC. 2% are children with a peanut allergy. For as long as we've known we've been told to wait to feed children peanuts to avoid an allergy but as it turns out its actually the opposite.

On Thursday, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, along with multiple other groups, released a study saying that parents need to expose their kids to peanuts as young as infancy to prevent developing the allergy later in life. Even a child who has a high chance of developing one, should still be given small amounts of nuts, because there's still a hope of prevention.

The new guidelines suggest that you should introduce peanuts when your baby reaches 6 months old. If no reaction occurs, you should continue feeding it to them everyday.

Over time, the body develops an immunity to peanuts or at least so a serious allergic reaction doesn't occur.

The decision to rework the guidelines came after a trial of more than 600 infants found that regular peanut consumption until age 5 reduced the likelihood of an allergy by 81%."

Health care providers, doctors, and parents are all encouraged to follow these new guidelines and not follow the old one which suggests waiting until 3-years-old.

Based on your baby's risk level is when you should introduce them to peanuts:

High-Risk Infants:

those with eczema or an egg allergy 4-6 months

Mild to Moderate:

6 months

Low-Risk:

kids with no egg allergy or eczema, is up to the parents discretion, but at least by 6 months, after they start eating solid foods.

Over time, not only will this reduce the number of children with peanut allergies but save health care costs.

SOURCES: Detroit Free Press & NBC News