March 6, 2013
A March 6, 2013 Wall Street Journal article, “Food Allergy Advice for Kids: Don’t Delay Peanuts, Eggs”, discusses the changing landscape surrounding food allergy prevention, citing the Immune Tolerance Network’s (ITN’s) LEAP study as a pivotal effort in determining whether the early introduction of allergenic foods may actually help prevent the development of allergies. The article points out that the increasing prevalence of food allergies in children in the US and other Western countries calls into question the guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics that recommend avoiding the introduction of certain allergenic foods (milk, eggs, peanuts, shellfish, tree nuts, and fish) before a certain age as a strategy to avoid future allergies.
In the ITN’s LEAP study, “Promoting Tolerance to Peanut in High-Risk Children” led by Gideon Lack, MD (King’s College London) 640 infants have been randomized to either receive peanut or placebo, and will be followed to the age of five to compare the allergy rates in each group. Results are expected at the end of 2015, and the Wall Street Journal article highlights the hope that this ITN study will provide critical data needed for developing future recommendations about food allergy prevention.
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