New US Dietary Guidelines and Introduction of Peanut Products to Infants

One change in these guidelines is the official recommendation for parents to introduce potentially allergenic foods, like peanuts to infants within the child’s first year. The guidelines go even further for infants who are at a high risk of peanut allergies, suggesting and recommending to introduce peanut-containing foods at age 4 to 6 months.

One reason that this new change is substantial is because it marks the first time that the USDA or Department of Health have officially made this recommendation. Previously, the recommendations ranged from waiting until 3 years or older to saying there was not sufficient evidence to delay the introduction of potential allergens like peanuts. Now, more research has suggested it can be beneficial to introduce these products to infants. Most notably, the Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) study which was published in 2015, right after the last USDA and Department of Health Dietary Guidelines was made public, showed that introducing peanuts at an early age, as early as four months reduced the risk of developing peanut allergies.

The guidelines state that caregivers should first check with healthcare providers before feeding the infant peanuts and that a simple blood test or skin prick could be used to recommend whether peanut and peanut-products should be introduced, and what the safest method to introduce it is. For more information, you can consult the USDA and Department of Health’s, US Dietary Guidelines.