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Not sure how widespread this advice is, but my son’s pediatrician had us start introducing peanut butter before he was eating solids by adding progressively mor

Not sure how widespread this advice is, but my son’s pediatrician had us start introducing peanut butter before he was eating solids by adding progressively more peanut butter to his bottle. So it feels like this is becoming the recommended approach to avoiding food allergies.

Spooky23 4y ago
It’s become more widespread guidance in the last decade. There are a few studies iirc comparing cousins living in the UK as opposed to Israel. The Israeli kids get a peanut based cracker as a common snack and have much lower incidence of peanut allergies. I think in the US the issue is that there isn’t a ton of published material on it. My info may be out of date as my kids are well past this stage.
- fullstop 4y ago
  One thing to be careful about here, and I don't have any data or skin in the game here, is survivorship bias. It would be worth noting the difference in deaths from anaphylactic shock in very early childhood by country. I guess what I'm getting at is that you might not be counted as having a peanut allergy if you're dead.
firstlink 4y ago
Essentially illegal in the US though, given school requirements.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  No, its not. For one thing, schooling (even preschool) starts well after the target age for this.
- rtkwe 4y ago
  Decidedly not. There's plenty of meals given to kids outside of school to perform this intervention, it doesn't need to be in every meal on top of what other people have said about the timing.
- bigbillheck 4y ago
  How many kids do you think there are in schools who aren't eating solid foods yet?
  - skrbjc 4y ago
    Many many people put their kids into daycare at 3 months of age since that’s all they get for maternity leave.
    - myko 4y ago
      In the US 25% of mothers are back at work within 2 weeks of childbirth (https://www.vox.com/2015/8/21/9188343/maternity-leave-united-states https://www.vox.com/2015/8/21/9188343/maternity-leave-united...). FMLA requires jobs to let mothers take time but does not require they be paid, and most folks are living paycheck to paycheck and need the money.
      - gus_massa 4y ago
        It's 25% of the all mothers or 25% of the mothers that were working before the birth?
        boomboomsubban 4y ago
        It's a Department of Labor study, so presumably done on people already in the labor force. Doesn't change how terrible the stat is, even assuming 50% of mothers aren't in the labor pool that'd still be 12% of mothers back in work in under two weeks.
    - silversmith 4y ago
      I knew this before, as a fact like any other. Now that I've recently become a parent, it's... it's shocking. The idea of handing someone that young and helpless off to strangers raises a strong "NO!" reaction, right from the gut instead of the brain. In my neck of the woods we get 1.5 years maternity leave, and experiencing it myself I'm honestly not sure even that is enough.
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tinco 4y ago
Where I live (The Netherlands) we had multiple child care professionals recommend we feed the baby both egg and peanut butter as early as possible specifically to prevent allergies as well, so I don't think this is controversial in the medical community at least.

Spooky23 4y ago

It’s become more widespread guidance in the last decade. There are a few studies iirc comparing cousins living in the UK as opposed to Israel. The Israeli kids get a peanut based cracker as a common snack and have much lower incidence of peanut allergies. I think in the US the issue is that there isn’t a ton of published material on it. My info may be out of date as my kids are well past this stage.

fullstop 4y ago
One thing to be careful about here, and I don't have any data or skin in the game here, is survivorship bias. It would be worth noting the difference in deaths from anaphylactic shock in very early childhood by country. I guess what I'm getting at is that you might not be counted as having a peanut allergy if you're dead.

firstlink 4y ago

Essentially illegal in the US though, given school requirements.

dragonwriter 4y ago
No, its not. For one thing, schooling (even preschool) starts well after the target age for this.
rtkwe 4y ago
Decidedly not. There's plenty of meals given to kids outside of school to perform this intervention, it doesn't need to be in every meal on top of what other people have said about the timing.
bigbillheck 4y ago
How many kids do you think there are in schools who aren't eating solid foods yet?
- skrbjc 4y ago
  Many many people put their kids into daycare at 3 months of age since that’s all they get for maternity leave.
  - myko 4y ago
    In the US 25% of mothers are back at work within 2 weeks of childbirth (https://www.vox.com/2015/8/21/9188343/maternity-leave-united-states https://www.vox.com/2015/8/21/9188343/maternity-leave-united...). FMLA requires jobs to let mothers take time but does not require they be paid, and most folks are living paycheck to paycheck and need the money.
    - gus_massa 4y ago
      It's 25% of the all mothers or 25% of the mothers that were working before the birth?
      - boomboomsubban 4y ago
        It's a Department of Labor study, so presumably done on people already in the labor force. Doesn't change how terrible the stat is, even assuming 50% of mothers aren't in the labor pool that'd still be 12% of mothers back in work in under two weeks.
  - silversmith 4y ago
    I knew this before, as a fact like any other. Now that I've recently become a parent, it's... it's shocking. The idea of handing someone that young and helpless off to strangers raises a strong "NO!" reaction, right from the gut instead of the brain. In my neck of the woods we get 1.5 years maternity leave, and experiencing it myself I'm honestly not sure even that is enough.
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tinco 4y ago

Where I live (The Netherlands) we had multiple child care professionals recommend we feed the baby both egg and peanut butter as early as possible specifically to prevent allergies as well, so I don't think this is controversial in the medical community at least.