We've created this fear in parents that they must keep peanuts away from their child. My colleague wouldn't bring peanuts into the house with her first child and by age 3 her son still hadn't eaten peanut butter or any other peanut products. She wanted to introduce peanut butter to him and went as far as bringing him to the Children's Hospital emergency department and gave him a tiny amount of peanut butter while sitting in emergency waiting room. The idea being that she'd be able to get help quick if he went into anaphylactic shock. I thought, and tried to explain to her, that a 3 year old in daycare probably has been exposed to peanuts already, and therefore was very unlikely to have a severe reaction. But you can't always use that logic on worried parents.
This idea of introducing the food in an ED waiting room is probably something spread on mommy forums such as BabyCenter. One mom shares it, then there is social pressure to do the same thing. A parent probably thinks "Does it make me a bad mom if I don't do it." Very unfortunate.
Instead of feeding our baby peanut butter, I smeared a small amount on his arm first. The skin got red and bubbled up. We took him in, got him tested, and found that he had the allergy.
My son has a peanut allergy which manifested in the same way. We were then told to have a component test done on his blood to determine which proteins he was actually allergic. It was explained that some are more commonly related to anaphylaxis while others tend to just cause rashes, etc. He ended up testing positive to one that is considered "bad", and he has been in OIT for awhile. So far so good - but I recently heard of a child doing the same with milk OIT and the child passed away. Very scary stuff.
Curious if you hand wash or use a dishwasher for the baby bottles? There's a hygiene hypothesis to explain why allergies are more prevalent in 1st world countries.
I agree. And the study actually points out that "There was no significant between-group difference in the incidence of serious adverse events."
It's important to remember how vital early introduction to both beneficial and harmful environmental agents are to human development. Its easy to have the mindset that I will wait until my child is 3+ years old before I introduce anything potentially harmful with the idea being that they will be bigger and stronger. The immune system is actually quite strong and adaptable early in development which is precisely why vaccines work better at an early age
That being said the parent (esp mother) also plays a large roll in the first introduction of helpful bacteria that break down various foods. The bacteria that are transferred during a vaginal birth give the baby a leg up in establishing its early gut flora. Additionally there is a direct transfer of antibodies through the placenta and breast milk which help protect the baby. I would imagine a mother eating peanuts during both those times would help pass some of these antibodies to her offspring.
We gave our kids peanut butter as soon as they were eating solid food. We live right next to the emergency room so we figured, let's just get it over with. Sounds like it's the right approach to introduce it as early as possible, anyway.
My wife is a dietitian and we gave our first daughter peanut butter (natural, no sugar added) starting at 6 months. The only other concern with PB is choking hazard, so we just spread it really thin on toast or crackers. At 6-9 months, they usually just suck on food or handle it. Rarely do they get a ton down anyways.
This idea of introducing the food in an ED waiting room is probably something spread on mommy forums such as BabyCenter. One mom shares it, then there is social pressure to do the same thing. A parent probably thinks "Does it make me a bad mom if I don't do it." Very unfortunate.