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In a study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), researchers have discovered that regularly feeding infants peanut products from infancy to age 5 significantly decreases the risk of peanut allergy later in life.

The findings, published in the NEJM Evidence journal, provide compelling evidence that early allergen consumption can offer long-term protection against peanut allergy.

According to NIAID Director Jeanne Marrazzo, M.D., M.P.H., the study's results should reassure parents and caregivers about the effectiveness of introducing peanut products to young children according to established guidelines.

"Today's findings should reinforce parents' and caregivers' confidence that feeding their young children peanut products beginning in infancy according to established guidelines can provide lasting protection from peanut allergy," Marrazzo said, as per the NIH website.

"If widely implemented, this safe, simple strategy could prevent tens of thousands of cases of peanut allergy among the 3.6 million children born in the United States each year."

The study, known as LEAP-Trio, builds upon previous research from the Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) clinical trial and its follow-up, LEAP-On. During the LEAP trial, children who consumed peanut products regularly from infancy to age 5 experienced an 81% reduction in peanut allergy risk by age 5 compared to those who avoided peanuts.

Subsequently, participants in the LEAP-On study were asked to refrain from consuming peanuts from ages 5 to 6, with most children from the original peanut-consumption group remaining protected from peanut allergy at age 6.

The LEAP-Trio study enrolled 508 participants, accounting for nearly 80% of the original 640 LEAP trial participants. These children had an average age of 13 at enrollment, with 255 participants previously assigned to the peanut-consumption group and 253 to the peanut-avoidance group during the LEAP trial.

Adolescents in the LEAP-Trio study underwent peanut allergy assessments primarily through oral food challenges. This process involved administering gradually increasing amounts of peanut in a controlled environment to determine if participants could safely consume at least 5 grams of peanut, equivalent to more than 20 peanuts.

Additionally, researchers surveyed participants about recent peanut consumption patterns and validated self-reports by measuring peanut residues in participants' bed dust, a method previously validated by LEAP investigators.

Analysis by the LEAP-Trio investigators revealed that 15.4% of participants from the early childhood peanut-avoidance group and 4.4% from the early childhood peanut-consumption group developed peanut allergy at age 12 or older. These percentages corresponded to 38 out of 246 participants from the peanut-avoidance group and 11 out of 251 from the peanut-consumption group. Complete data was unavailable for 11 of the 508 enrolled participants.

The findings demonstrated that regular peanut consumption in early childhood reduced the risk of peanut allergy in adolescence by 71% compared to early peanut avoidance.

Furthermore, the study found that the protective effect of early peanut consumption persisted throughout childhood and early adolescence, even when participants did not consistently consume peanut products.

Overall, the study showed the importance of early allergen introduction in reducing the prevalence of peanut allergy and offer valuable insights for parents and healthcare providers.