LEAP peanut allergy study at Guys and St thomas, advice appreciated

[Meglet]

My 7 month old DS has been provisionally accepted onto the LEAP study in London, we are going up this Friday to meet the team and get him checked out.

I'm having a minor panic at the thought of him being involved in case he ends up in the group that ends up worse off . He's got excema, although it seems to be getting a little better, he came out in hives when he had a tiny bit of butter but no one in the family has any allergies so am starting to think he might just grow out of it.

Anyone else doing the study, points of view would be appreciated!

[Sammybear]

Hi Meglet!

We also had our first appointment at the LEAP study today. Our 9 month old DS has eczema and has an intolerance to cow's milk protein. From the skin prick test results today, we also discovered he had a reaction to sesame. At this stage, he is not allergic to peanut so is eligible to continue with the study.

We also share your worries about which group they will be assigned to. If DS wasn't involved in the study we would be waiting 3 years before introducing peanuts anyway, but if he is in the group that is exposed to peanuts early on, I would feel terrible if he developed an allergy through early exposure... I guess that's the gamble...

How did you get on today?

[HannahandSeb]

Don't know if you are still reading this post but we are taking part in the LEAP study and have been put into the avoidance group but at our 1 year old visit we have found out my ds is allergic to peanuts anyway. Because he was not allergic to peanuts at the start of the trial we can still carry on.

If we had been in the other group I would have given him the peanuts when we started the study at 10 months because I felt I was well supported there. I have called them many times since we have taken part and they have always been very happy to answer my questions and help where they can. I would never ever put his safety at risk if I wasn?t happy.

He did already have a severe egg, milk, fish and lentil allergy (quite close to peanuts apparently) plus eczema so maybe the odds were stacked against him from the start!

HTH

[tatt]

I'm not doing the study but my eldest child has a nut allergy. It's a brave thing to do but generations of children will have reason to be grateful to you. Around 20% of those who are diagnosed young with peanut allergy will go on to outgrow it.

[Meglet]

We decided not to take part in the LEAP study in the end as I was getting in too much of a stress. Luckily our GP is lovely and he has said we can see the allergy specialist at the local hospital instead. DS skin seems to have good and bad days so we're still hoping it will get better. Thanks for your replies, hope it goes well for those people involved in the study .