Australia starts world-first peanut allergy treatment for babies | Hacker News Reader

Australia starts world-first peanut allergy treatment for babies

bbc.co.uk

17 pointspaulcjh10 comments

I recall a study in Australia about 8 years back that gave young kids a form of peanut as treatment for the allergy and it cured all or nearly all of the participants. It sounded amazing. I always wondered why it wasn't replicated more widely (or maybe I just hadn't heard about it).

Why most schools in Canada seems to have a no-nuts policy (nuts are very healthy), but peanuts are actually legumes? Why not have a no-peanuts policy and let my children enjoy walnuts?

Tree nuts are another common allergen, along with milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, wheat, and soy[1]

Presumably peanuts and tree nuts are more commonly singled out due to the severity of the potential reaction, as well as the likelihood of accidental exposure (ground or powdered nuts tend to spread easily and unintentionally compared to the other allergens)

1: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/foodallergies/index.htm

The linked CDC article could be better on this: Tree nuts, peanuts (legumes), and seeds (sesame, etc.) can be actual allergens. I've never heard of a single case of milk or wheat allergy in an "allergic reaction" standpoint.

Same technique was discussed here a year ago (360 comments): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35197835

not sure why this is news. the babies are given "doses of peanut powder each day for at least two years"..

"world-first peanut allergy treatment".. thats like saying milk is a "treatment" to get your daily calcium. all theyre doing is feeding them peanut butter so their bodies get used to it from an early age.

israel has a lower peanut allergy per capita because the most popular snack there is bamba (peanut snack), any parent can do the same by offering more food variety to their children

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S22132....

It's news because this is a treatment for a condition that kills people. A few hundred or so people a year in the US alone: https://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/allergi...

>not sure why this is news.

The babies being given the treatment are allergic to peanuts. This is the opposite approach to recommendations, including in Israel.

> israel has a lower peanut allergy per capita because the most popular snack there is bamba

Infant allergy rates are similar in Israel, however a specific dip in peanut allergies in Israel was a motivating factor for looking into this approach.

>any parent can do the same by offering more food variety to their children

This can kill an infant with a peanut allergy. The science on infant allergy is far ahead of randomly experimenting with your child.

Sources:

https://www.jaci-inpractice.org/article/S2213-2198(20)30825-...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02782-8

If children regularly suffered from calcium deficiency and were suffering ever increasing rates of calcium deficiency, it would also be news.

This is a new and novel approach that few are presently doing deliberately.

Following the doctor's advice, I've been given as a kid regularly a strawberry (or pieces, can't remember) to overcome my strawberry allergy. It worked fine, now I have zero troubles with them. I haven't researched how many allergies can be addressed this way, but for my sample size of one it just worked as the doctor said.

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