Experts said that the best way to lower babies' risk of developing peanut allergies is by feeding the legume to them. But at what age is it really safe to feed peanuts to babies?
Dr. Amal Assa'ad, an immunologist and allergist at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio, said that it's safe to feed babies with food containing peanuts as early as six months, NPR reported. However, Assa'ad (who also helped wrote the new federal guidelines for feeding peanuts to babies) said that a healthy six-month-old baby should only eat the legume after he/she has begun to eat other solid food. A baby shouldn't get peanut products as his or her first solid food.
Assa'ad advised parents to be extra careful in feeding peanut products to babies with a high risk of peanut allergy such as those with a history of severe eczema and an allergy to eggs. If the baby belongs to this category, a pediatrician should be consulted first about whether the infant should be examined by an allergist.
The symptoms of peanut allergy are nausea, runny or congested nose, itchy skin or hives, an itching or tingling sensation in or around the mouth or throat, and anaphylaxis, which can endanger a person's life by impairing breathing and sending the body into shock, the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) listed. Feeding peanut products even to peanut-sensitive babies can lower their risk of developing an allergy.
A 2015 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that feeding about four heaping teaspoons of peanut butter per week to babies beginning at the age of four to 11 months are 80 percent less likely to develop a peanut allergy by the time they reach the age of five. This benefit was still seen even after the children stopped eating peanut butter. Doctors, however, said that it's safer to introduce peanut products to peanut-sensitive babies in the doctor's office instead of at home.
Dr. Ruchi S. Gupta, a pediatrician and immunologist at Northwestern University in Illinois, advised parents against feeding whole peanuts to babies because they can choke on that. Peanut butter is also risky because it's thick and sticky.
The best way to introduce peanut butter to babies is by adding hot water to 2 teaspoons of the puree to make it warm, Gupta said. Put a small amount of puree on a spoon's tip, feed it to the baby and watch for any negative reaction for 10 minutes.
If nothing happens, parents can continue feeding the peanut butter slowly but still watch the child closely for approximately two hours. Parents can also feed other peanut products to the baby if no allergic reaction is seen.
