Among the most common food allergies, the peanut allergy affects between 1 and 2 percent of Americans. It typically appears during childhood and persists through life, although some 20 percent of people outgrow it.
Doctors long advised parents to avoid giving peanut products to their infants and young children. But in 2017, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases officially reversed that guidance — and peanut allergies have decreased sharply since, according to a 2025 study in the journal Pediatrics.
“To prevent peanut and/or egg allergy, both peanut and egg should be introduced around 6 months of life, but not before 4 months,” the authors recommend.
That reversal followed a landmark 2015 clinical trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine that found introducing peanut products to babies could cut their chances of developing an allergy by more than 80 percent.
After the new guidelines were put into place, the Pediatrics study notes, peanut allergy rates in children under 3 fell 43 percent from 2017 to 2020.
The 2017 guidelines were expanded in a 2021 statement from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology; the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology; and the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
“To prevent peanut and/or egg allergy, both peanut and egg should be introduced around 6 months of life, but not before 4 months,” the authors recommend. “Other allergens should be introduced around this time as well. Upon introducing complementary foods, infants should be fed a diverse diet, because this may help foster prevention of food allergy.”
Comments (0)