BABIES and toddlers should never be allowed to eat peanuts and other nuts or they may risk developing potentially fatal peanut allergies, especially if they come from an allergic family, the British Dietetic Association has warned. Breastfeeding mothers from highly allergic families should also avoid nuts in their diets so as not to pass nut allergens on to their babies.
The warnings come after publication of research in the British Medical Journal on Friday which said that mothers may unknowingly be sensitising their young children to peanuts by breastfeeding them after eating peanuts themselves or by inadvertently feeding them peanuts, from sources hidden in foods, including commercial babymilks.
Peanut allergy can result in death from anaphylactic shock and the more peanuts a sensitised child eats, the higher the risk becomes. Peanuts can be difficult to avoid however, because peanuts and peanut oil are often hidden in goods which are either unlabelled or inadequately labelled. Children have died after inadvertently eating peanut containing foods.
According to the new research, there are serious questions about whether peanut oils in baby milks or infant foods are allergenic and thereby causing children to become allergic to peanuts. This would explain the worrying increase in peanut allergy.
Since almost all peanut sensitive children also have asthma, eczema, hay fever or some other allergy related condition, all young children with such conditions should avoid all nuts and nut products.