Telling parents to introduce babies to peanuts early hasn't changed Aussie allergy rates

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-07-06 01:00

Australia; VIC

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A change in guidelines encouraging Australian parents to introduce their babies to peanuts early to help avoid allergies has not impacted the rate of peanut allergies, according to Aussie researchers. The team looked at peanut allergy rates among two groups of children; one born before and one after the guideline change. While they say the rate of peanut allergy did not change significantly between the two groups, they note the second group included far more children of East Asian ancestry who are known to have a higher risk of peanut allergy. This may mean any change in allergy rates was blunted by an increase in children more likely to be allergic, they say.

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conference: JAMA

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), The University of Melbourne, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health

Funder: Dr Peters reported receiving grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) outside the submitted work. Dr Odoi reported being supported by a research training program PhD scholarship provided by the Australian Commonwealth Government and the University of Melbourne during the conduct of the study. Dr Perrett reported receiving grants from DBV Technologies paid to their institution, grants from Novartis paid to their institution, and personal fees from Aravax paid to their institution outside the submitted work. Dr Tang reported grants from NHMRC, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and Prota Therapeutics and personal fees from Prota Therapeutics (employee and share interest/options) and Pfizer (consultancy fees) outside the submitted work and having a patent for allergy treatment issued and a patent for amethod of inducing tolerance to an antigen licensed to Prota Therapeutics. Dr Dharmage reported receiving grants from GlaxoSmithKline outside the submitted work. Dr Koplin reported receiving grants from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.

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