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When my five-year-old and nine-year-old kids were infants, the prevailing rule was that peanuts were a no-no food until age three. Back then, health professionals agreed that delaying peanuts was the best way to stave off a potential food allergy.
New recommendations have toppled that old advice, with research now showing that earlier introduction of peanuts can actually reduce the risk of peanut allergy by up to 80 percent. As soon as a baby starts eating solids, it?s a good idea to introduce peanuts, and it?s safe.
But is it" When news organizations reported on the study, most left out an important detail: You can?t actually feed whole nuts to babies. ?I cringed the first time I heard the words ?Give peanuts to babies,? on the radio, because no one mentioned that whole peanuts can be very dangerous,? says paediatric ear, nose and throat specialist Blake Papsin, otolaryngologist-in-chief at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. If you?re thinking that this is obvious?that all parents would already know not to feed a whole peanut to their baby?Papsin says otherwise. At least twice a month he?s met with the largely avoidable task of removing a whole peanut that?s been inhaled into a baby?s lungs?and he?s just one doctor in one hospital in the country.
Removing the peanut from the baby?s lungs involves a procedure Papsin describes as ?unpleasant.? Left untreated, an inhaled peanut can cause arachidic bronchitis, a lung infection.
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