New Treatment Could Reduce Kids’ Peanut Allergies
An experimental therapy that fed children with peanut allergies small amounts of peanut flour has helped more than 80 percent of them safely eat a handful of the previously worrisome nuts.
From the Associated Press:
Although experts say the results of the carefully monitored study are encouraging, they warn it isn’t something that parents should try at home.
Peanut allergies are on the rise globally and affect about 1 in 50 children, mostly in high-income countries. The consequences can be life-threatening — peanuts are the most common cause of fatal food allergy reactions. There is no way to avoid a reaction other than just avoiding peanuts. Allergy shots used for environmental triggers like pollen are too risky.
Doctors at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge started by giving 99 children aged seven to 16 with severe peanut allergies a tiny 2-milligram dose of a special peanut flour mixed into their food. Slowly they increased that amount to 800 milligrams. The dose increases were given at a research facility where the children were observed for any dangerous side effects — the most frequent were itchiness in the mouth, stomach pains or nausea.
After six months of treatment, more than 80 percent of the children can now safely eat five peanuts at a time.
“This made a dramatic difference to their lives,” said Dr. Andrew Clark of the University of Cambridge in Britain, who led the research. “Before the study, they could not even tolerate tiny bits of peanuts and their parents had to read food labels continuously.”
The intention of the treatment isn’t to help kids eat large amounts of peanuts, but to prevent a life-threatening allergic reaction in case they accidentally eat trace amounts.
Clark said the treatment works by retraining the patients’ immune systems so they can gradually build up a tolerance to peanuts, though he guessed they might need to keep taking it for several years. He and colleagues plan to offer the treatment soon in a special peanut allergy clinic as well as beginning larger studies.
The study was paid for by Britain’s Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research. It was published online Thursday in the journal, Lancet.
In an accompanying commentary, Matthew Greenhawt of the University of Michigan described the study’s results as “exceptionally promising” but predicted the treatment was still “years away from routine clinical use.” He noted that previous research which used a similar approach for milk allergies had failed and said it was unknown if the peanut therapy could produce “lasting tolerance.”
Unlike other childhood food allergies, children rarely outgrow a nut allergy. Schools across Canada and the United States have taken a host of measures to combat the problem, some airlines have stopped serving packaged nuts and there’s been a fierce debate over whether peanut butter should be banned from schools.
Lena Barden, 12, used to suffer serious swelling and breathing problems after eating just a trace amounts of nuts. But since she joined the study more than two years ago, Barden’s tolerance has grown and she now eats five peanuts a day. While Barden says she still hates peanuts, the trial has allowed her to indulge in previously forbidden treats.
“I’d never tried a doughnut before I was 11 because they (could) contain traces of nuts,” she said.
Then a friend bought a pack and offered her one.
“It was amazing,” she said. “I ate the entire packet.”
Milhouse
It’s been known for quite a while that early exposure to peanuts reduces the chance of developing a peanut allergy. Israeli kids have far fewer peanut allergies than American or British ones, because they eat Bamba from infancy.
K
I am impressed with Milhouse. Not only is he an expert in every area from halacha to medicine, but he is way ahead of the latest peanut allergy research! He can cure this allergy with Bamba. Amazingly irresponsible, and I must caution anyone with allergic children NOT to follow he free medical advise. It is literally worth the price he charges for it – nothing! He is more nizhar in cholov stam for children than pikuach nefesh!
Milhouse
Hey, it’s not my fault that you are so ignorant. It is a FACT that has been known for a long time that the rate of peanut allergies among Israeli kids (including Israeli kids raised abroad) is far lower than that among demographically identical kids who are not Israeli, and the most obvious difference is that Israeli kids are given Bamba from infancy, while in America and Europe parents have been convinced, without any evidence, that babies need to be kept carefully away from peanuts.
Parents should know to expose their babies early to peanuts and other common allergens, to reduce the chance of an allergy developing.
K
ma inyan shmita eitzel har sinai – the article is about children who actually HAVE a peanut allergy, and to overcome their hazard to peanut exposure. What does that have to do with exposing NON-ALLERGIC children to peanut products?!
Milhouse
It’s a similar principle.
what's nayas
In Israel they have been feeding bamba to kids for ages and Israelis barely are allergic to nuts
K
Babies eating Bamba – in Lakewood I see it all the time, even newborns eating French Fries and guzzling soda in pizza shops.
Milhouse
Liar. You have never ever seen a newborn eating french fries or soda.
K
You are the liar! I never said the babies were EATING soda, they were eating the French Fries and guzzling the soda! Why do you lack faith? You have no emunas chachomim!
Milhouse
Nu, when did I claim that you said they were eating soda? I said you never saw such a thing, and you just admitted that you didn’t. In any case, you have never seen newborns guzzling soda either, or anything that didn’t come from a bottle or their mother.
K
You wrote: “You have never ever seen a newborn eating french fries or soda.”
Now you write: “I said you never saw such a thing”
!00% proof of a liar!
K
Lo ra’isi aino raya – I did not ask to see their passports to verify their age but they looked newborn (ain l’dayan ela ma sh’einov ro’os)
Milhouse
I don’t believe you. You are making it up.
K
Israeli babies eating Bamba – you believe, but Lakewood babies eating French fries – you cannot believe. Why – is Bamba healthier than French Fries? Milhouse, you lack emunas chachomim!
Milhouse
1. Israeli newborns don’t eat bamba.
2. Bamba is generally introduced to babies at about six months, as soon as they can tolerate solids.
3. You are not a chochom, and no sane person would have any emunah in you.