Peanuts - to introduce or not? Please tell me your experiences...

[naturopath]

I can't decide whether to introduce peanuts to my 5 month-old ds (in due course). Current advice is to avoid peanuts until 3 years. Yet peanut allergy is increasing. Can't decide whether this is because peanuts are being introduced, witheld, or not related to either.

It would really help me if you could tell me the following:

(a) is your child allergic to peanuts?
(b) if yes, at what age did you find out?
(c) at what age did you give your child peanuts, or are you witholding until they are over 3, or older?
(d) do you think that your child's peanut consumption or avoidance bears any relation to their allergic or non-allergic status?
(e) did your child start out not being allergic to peanuts and then developed the allergy (following either peanut consumption or avoidance)?

Any other details you can think of would also be very helpful.

Thanks!

yes one of my kids is allergic to peanuts.

In other countries where people eat more nuts they are not roasted as we do - and that makes them more allergenic. Children allergic to nuts do die without the cause being recognised. That even happens here where the cause of death can be described as asthma when nut allergy caused the asthma attack. Children in other countries are also more often exposed to infection with parasites. Some parasites are believed to protect against allergies. They may also harm the brain. Comparisons with other countries are difficult!

The evidence about eating/avoiding nuts isn't conclusive which is why the study is necessary. Please stay in it. Personally I'd be happier to be in the group avoiding nuts.

Tatt - thanks - that really is a very helpful post (as are everyone else's!). It puts things into perspective. I will stay with the study for now, and perhaps think again in a year or two, in case I find out any new evidence by then..

in the meantime, anyone that hasn't posted - please do! I'm looking for as many responses as possible.

couple of other thoughts - nut allergy has been linked to use of soya milk and creams for eczema. So if you want to stay in the study but are concerned about the best for your child you may want to avoid those things.

Some kids with nut allergy do have problems with other legumes. It depends what protein they react to as there are several proteins in peanut that cause allergies. Similar proteins are found in other foods so you can - and often do - get peanut allergy with almond/other tree nut/sesame/lupine allergy.

You inherit a tendency to be atopic rather than inheriting a specific allergy. Children are not born with nut allergy, there have been tests on babies. Some develop it at what is believed to be their first exposure which is unusual as it's normally the second time that you have the problem.

Funny you say that - I was sure I had heard about a link with soya - yet the dietician on the study said to try him on soya formula (which I'm not going to do).

one of the newspaper reports for you to show the dietician news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=587642005

family inheritance does play a factor here, and to add to the confusion, some allergy docs are now researching the risk of avoidance causing peanut allergy ( dr Lack)

There has been no studies to prove that aviodance prevents peanut allergy, and although mothers have been told to avoid if in a high risk group, the rise of peanut allergy is staggering. ( and depressing)

If you are in a high risk group I would ( personaly) avoid giving peanuts for the first years,to what extent you are to carry that out ( ie 'may contain labels) is a personal choice.
I have met mothers with 3yr old that will let a child eat chocolate with nut traces, but never let child eat chocolate with chopped nuts. Perhaps thats a wise choice? who knows?

I have four children and only one with allergies, the others have eaten peanuts , with no trouble.
( life is a lottery , and (shrug) who knows if they will develop allergies in the future?)

our allergic child showed signs of food allergy before the age of three months, and his long allergy list has changed over the years, currently he is allergic to
peanut/all beans/kiwi fruit/yeast extract/dog/cat/dustmite/tree pollen.

There are no easy answers to this question, trust your own motherly instinct. its the best all of us can do.

I didnt avoid nuts in pregnacy or bfeeding (although didnt eat excessively)and have no history of any allergies, excema or asthma anywhere in the family.

Gave 7 month old twins peanut butter at the weekend and both had amanaphalactic shock and were rushed to hospital

I was going on current advice that you only need to avoid if history of allergies etc.

Wish i had been more cautious!

I ate peanut butter through both my pregnancies. It was my craving!

My DD 10 has no allergies
My DS 12 has lots of allergies, including tree nuts. He had peanut butter and chocolate spread with hazlenuts as a toddler, not a baby.
He did show some signs of allergy to seseme seeds when he was little, when he ate a cheese stick with seseme he complained it hurt his throat.
Then one weekend when he was about 41/2 he had seseme seeds on a greek cake (I am half greek cypriot we eat a lot of nuts) he vomited it up, then 2 days later he had pecan pie and his face swelled up and he couldn't stop sneezing and then was sick.
His allergy test showed he was allergic to tree nuts, peanuts, seseme seeds. he has also had a mild reaction to sunflower seeds.

We had him retested last summer and his peanut came up clear, but still allergic to most treenuts, has hayfever and is allergic to cats (i suspect dogs as well).
My DH has similar allergies but I think he only really has a problem with Brazil nuts, rather than all treenut.

Would say both DH and I have hayfever and eczema.