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Home > Portable Practical Pediatrics > Childhood Peanut Allergy (Pedcast)


	Podcast:		Portable Practical Pediatrics
	Episode:		Childhood Peanut Allergy (Pedcast)
	Category:		Kids & family
	Duration:		00:00:00
	Publish Date:		2016-01-24 21:22:44
	Description:		Today I am going to let you know about a seismic shift that has occurred in the past year with regards to our understanding of allergy; specifically food allergy and likely all types of allergy that children can develop. We've known for a long time that children born into Western cultures, during the 20th century, had a much higher chance of developing one of the allergic diseases than do those not born elsewhere. Those allergic diseases are asthma, hay fever, eczema, and the subject of today's talk, food allergies. We've talked about this a lot in various pedcasts on DocSmo in the past five years but the reasons behind this growing allergy trend are beginning to come clear. If you want to listen to some of my old posts, go right ahead. Here they are. http://www.docsmo.com/?s=allergy+farm, http://www.docsmo.com/food-allergy-in-children-pedcast/, http://www.docsmo.com/allergy-an-american-disease-article/, http://www.docsmo.com/dishwashers-harmful-to-kids-article/ http://www.docsmo.com/page/2/?s=probiotics Why so much allergy is the subject for today's pedcast and, more importantly, what are the current recommendations by experts to help parents avoid having their children becoming food allergic, specifically, peanut allergic. First before we get started, let me remind my listeners that I a pediatrician, not a pediatric allergist but I read a lot and I think I am pretty well informed. If, what I am about to tell you today is true, it may be at the starting line of better understanding why some children develop allergy and conversely, why most children do not . As I said before, we have had an inkling for a long time that environmental exposures at critical times in a child's development have something to do with whether a child becomes allergic. For instance, we have known for a long time that children born to moms who take probiotics during pregnancy, children raised on farms, children raised in homes with older children and pets, and children whose parents hand wash their dishes, have less chance of developing allergic diseases as they get older. The theme here is that early exposure to germs seems to induce more tolerance to the stuff that many children become allergic to. Researchers feel that a the amount and kind of bacteria that colonizes a newborn's intestines in infancy, to a large degree, determines how their immune system w develops and whether or not they will become allergic.(1) A new study called the LEAP study has also she more light on a process called "immune tolerance", specifically tolerance to peanut protein. (2) Researchers doing this study found that many children who were at high risk of developing peanut allergy, if exposed to peanut protein between 4-11 months of age, on a regular basis, developed tolerance to peanut protein and avoided becoming allergic. The data was so dramatic that this one study has led to a new recommendation from the Academy of Pediatrics; Infants at high risk of developing food allergies should be given at least 3 teaspoons/week of peanut protein to help them induce immune tolerance and avoid peanut allergy. (3) To get this effect of allergy reduction, children in the LEAP study were fed the following forms of peanut protein: Box 2. Examples of peanut-containing foods used in the LEAP trial • Smooth peanut butter (1 teaspoon) mixed with milk or with mashed or pureed fruit • Bamba snack* (Osem; approximately two thirds of a 1-oz (25 g) bag; 21 sticks of Bamba) — For young infants (
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