A teenager who ate peanuts as a child for research “dodged the most terrible bullet”, his family said, after early consumption was found to slash allergy risk in adolescence by 71 percent.
Atticus Cox was one of more than 600 youngsters recruited to test whether children should regularly eat peanuts or avoid them to reduce their risk of reactions.
His parents decided to enrol him after Atticus suffered an allergic reaction to pasta at the age of seven months.
Dad Rupert, 50, said: “It was absolutely terrifying, and we knew that Atticus was likely to develop other food allergies. It felt like there would be a knife hanging over him all the time.
“It’s impossible to escape from horrible, tragic news stories of children and teens dying from anaphylactic reactions to peanut. To us, it felt like a risk not to expose Atticus to peanuts at an early age.”
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All children in the study were deemed at high risk of developing a peanut allergy. Half were asked to regularly eat peanuts from infancy until the age of five, while the rest avoided them.
Rates of peanut allergy at age five were 81 percent lower among those who ate peanuts.
Some 500 children were then followed-up when they were aged 12 or older. They were free to eat peanuts as much or as little as they wanted between the ages of six and 12.
At that point, 15.4 percent of children who had avoided peanuts in early childhood had an allergy, compared with just 4.4 percent who had eaten them.
This meant the risk of an allergy in adolescence was cut by 71 percent for those who ate them.
Atticus is now 17 and will sit his A-level exams this summer. He is allergic to wheat and rye but did not develop a peanut allergy.
Rupert said it was a relief to know his son could head off for a summer of interrailing in Europe “knowing that peanuts won’t threaten his life every time he eats”.
He added: “As parents, we don’t feel overwhelming terror that each meal away from home will potentially land him in hospital, or worse.
“I would urge parents of all young babies to wean their baby on as many foods as possible, as early as possible.
“Thanks to the trial, we feel we’ve dodged the most terrible bullet, and are so grateful we had the opportunity to enrol Atticus.”
Experts stressed that infants should only be given peanut butter or peanut puffs, as whole peanuts are a choking hazard.
Lead investigator Professor Gideon Lack, of King’s College London, said: “Decades of advice to avoid peanuts has made parents fearful of introducing peanuts at an early age.
“The evidence is clear that early introduction of peanut in infancy induces long term tolerance and protects children from allergy well into adolescence.
“This simple intervention will make a remarkable difference to future generations and see peanut allergies plummet.”
The team noted that the amount of peanuts consumed between the ages of six and 12 varied widely in both groups, suggesting earlier consumption had a protective effect regardless of later habits.
Professor George Du Toit, co-lead Investigator, added: “This is a safe and highly effective intervention which can be implemented as early as four months of age.
“The infant needs to be developmentally ready to start weaning and peanut should be introduced as a soft pureed paste or as peanut puffs.”
One in 50 children in the UK are thought to have a peanut allergy. Amena Warner, head of clinical services at Allergy UK said food allergies were on the rise in the UK.
She added: “That’s why Allergy UK welcomes the results of this study as it provides such hope to future generations that the prevalence of peanut allergy can be reduced.
“For far too long the food allergic community has had little more than hope that the causes of food allergy and how to minimise or eliminate the risks would be better understood.
“However, this LEAP-trio study and its findings, suggest that there really is a possibility for future generations to be free from food allergies and the associated quality of life and mental health and wellbeing impacts.”
The LEAP-Trio study was published online in NEJM Evidence.
