New peanut allergy prevention guidelines start in infancy

The recommendations fall into three categories:

The first category includes children who are believed to be most likely to develop a peanut allergy: infants who have severe asthma, egg allergy or both. Parents can either introduce these children to peanut-containing food at 4 to 6 months or get a reference to an allergist who will give the child a skin prick test or a blood test to see whether the infant is allergic to peanuts.
If not allergic, parents should follow the recommendation of introducing peanut-containing foods at 4 to 6 months. However, if the infant is allergic, parents should refrain.

The second category includes children with mild to moderate eczema; less likely to have an allergy, these infants should be introduced to peanut-containing foods about 6 months of age.

The third category belongs to children with no eczema or food allergies and no family history of such. These children can either be fed peanut-containing foods or not at any age, based purely on family and cultural preference

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