Rachel Mealey: Australia has one of the highest rates of food allergies anywhere in the world and for decades parents have avoided feeding their children peanuts due to concerns about the potential for an adverse reaction. But new research has found more evidence that introducing peanuts into babies diets early and then continuing consumption as they get older will help protect them against peanut allergy right into adolescence. Nick Grimm reports.
Nick Grimm: For Adelaide mum Alexa Schiller, the task of introducing eight month old baby Aria to solid foods recently has been an anxious time.
Alexa Schiller: Yeah, it’s really hard and it’s really overwhelming being a first time mum because you just don’t know how they’re going to react. And even just speaking with my mum, she says, you know, back when I was a baby this wasn’t the case. So it’s just hard to keep up to date with what is the latest research and suggestions.
Nick Grimm: The latest research from the UK confirms that the best approach is to start introducing foods like peanuts in infancy. The longitudinal study of around 500 children found peanut consumption starting in infancy and continuing to the age of five reduced the risk of allergy by 71 per cent, with that protection likely to last for years. Maria Said is the CEO of Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia.
Maria Said: And it’s great that they’ve now followed these children that started in this trial 13 years ago. They’re at age 13 and eating peanut whenever they like. So even if they avoid it, there’s not the risk of them redeveloping it. So 71 per cent still do not have food allergy.
Nick Grimm: But many parents might be forgiven for being confused about what’s the right advice to follow when it comes to introducing their children to those foods notorious for causing allergic reactions. Even the experts admit the conflicting advice over recent decades hasn’t helped.
Assoc Prof Severine Navarro: Oh, absolutely. And I’m one of those because first kid, it was all about avoidance and make sure we didn’t expose kids. And then a second child 10 years later, no, we have to start and expose them to everything. So I can only imagine the confusion.
Nick Grimm: Associate Professor Severine Navarro is from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.
Assoc Prof Severine Navarro: This research is really strengthening what we started to know about early life exposure to allergens like peanuts. There’s been a very interesting flip in the last 10 years where in the past decades, recommendations were for parents to avoid exposing their children to known allergens like peanuts, but also soybean and other foods that can cause allergy, shellfish products, etc. And now it’s been shown that on the contrary, kids should be exposed to these allergens to build their immune system to recognise it in a safe way. And this study shows just that.
Nick Grimm: And for Adelaide woman, Alexa Schiller, that’s reassuring news given the weight of misinformation out there. She often hears the stories about how other parents negotiate the risks of introducing potential allergens and the precautions they take.
Alexa Schiller: There’s so much information. And if you’re on social media, mum talk like TikTok can be really daunting and overwhelming and definitely have a lot of false information out there.
Rachel Mealey: Alexa Schiller ending that report from Nick Grimm and Angus Randall.