New research casts doubt on government health recommendations that infants and new mothers avoid eating peanuts to prevent development of food allergy. The study, published in the November issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, shows that children who avoided peanut in infancy and early childhood were 10 times as likely to develop peanut allergy as those who were exposed to peanuts. 

Researchers measured the incidence of peanut allergy in 8,600 Jewish school-age children in the United Kingdom and Israel .  

“The most obvious difference in the diet of infants in both populations occurs in the introduction of peanut,” lead author Dr. George Du Toit wrote in the article. At 9 months of age, 69% of Israeli children were eating peanuts, compared to 10% of those in the UK . 

The researchers speculate that recommendations in recent years to delay exposure to peanuts longer and longer may be linked to the dramatic rise in peanut allergies.

The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology – November 2008.

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