NIAID issues new peanut introduction guidelines

On January 5, 2017, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), released new clinical guidelines recommending the introduction of peanut-containing foods during infancy to reduce the risk of developing peanut allergy.

The guidelines provide three separate recommendations for infants at various levels of risk for developing peanut allergy.

The change in recommendations was prompted by the results of the Learning Early About Peanut allergy (LEAP) trial, in which researchers found that children at high risk of developing peanut allergy were far less likely to develop an allergy when introduced to peanuts before they turned one year old.

Visit the NIAID website to access the guidelines and a summary for parents and caregivers.