We discovered my child's peanut allergy at around 8-9 months old, when she had barely-noticeable redness around her mouth the first time we gave peanut butter t

We discovered my child's peanut allergy at around 8-9 months old, when she had barely-noticeable redness around her mouth the first time we gave peanut butter to her, followed by full-on hives the second time. She's been tested by an allergist a couple times since then, and still has a strong reaction. Our home was not nut-free prior to that point, and obviously she did not attend school. Had we exposed her directly to peanuts earlier, would it have made a difference? Right now, no one knows because the underlying cause of these allergies is unknown. I have no allergies at all, and my wife has only seasonal allergies (ragweed for sure, maybe pollen). So who'd have thought exposure to an allergen would help? Well when she was born the prevailing advice was explicit to avoid exposure in the first few months. That advice has reversed recently (and after my child was born), based on a study in 2015 [1]. There are still babies that get peanut allergies even when they're exposed at only a few months old, so it's not like this is fool-proof. Maybe in a few years/decades the underlying cause of food allergies will be well understood, and we'll look back on this time in the same way we currently look back on the attitudes of smoking in the early 20th century. [1] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/new-guidelines-preventing-peanut-allergy-babies-2017011711049 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/new-guidelines-preventin...