Families who eat peanuts 'could increase infant allergy risk'

03 Jan 2008

Babies who live in a household where peanuts are eaten frequently may have an increased risk of developing an allergy to them, new research has suggested.

Experts at Imperial College London said that children who do not have a peanut allergy after the age of one tended to come from families where consumption of the nuts is low, while babies who do develop an allergy are more likely to come from homes where they are eaten often.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA), which funded the research, commented: "This relationship was found to be independent of the child's own level of consumption of peanut."

It is thought that the reaction is triggered by traces of peanut that are inhaled or which come into contact with the skin.

"These results suggest that higher environmental exposure to peanuts during early life in the families of those children who went on to develop peanut allergy, may have promoted the development of peanut allergy," the FSA concluded.

According to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, around one in 200 people is allergic to nuts, with symptoms varying from mild to the extremely serious.

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