The New Way To Prevent Nut Allergies?

by Alice Park,

It’s with nuts.

For years, the advice to parents worried about food allergies has focused, for reasons that make intuitive sense, on avoidance. After all, if kids don’t eat common allergens like peanuts, dairy or eggs, they can’t have a bad reaction to them.

But research shows that’s not how the immune system works. And in fact, the opposite tactic–exposing kids to possible trigger foods–may be wiser. A breakthrough study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that both allergic and nonallergic infants who ate small amounts of peanuts had a much lower rate of allergy than those who avoided nuts altogether for five years. The key is to start early.

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