Childhood egg allergies fall as early introduction becomes more common, new study finds - CNN

- But new research shows that introducing eggs by 6 months instead reduced childhood egg allergies.

- Parents used to be told to keep eggs away from babies, especially those at risk for allergies.

- In the study, egg allergy prevalence decreased by more than 17% among children after the guideline shift.

Parents used to be advised to keep allergenic foods like eggs away from babies, especially if allergies ran in the family. But based on recent and evolving evidence, the advice is now almost the opposite – and new research suggests the shift in guidance is paying off.

After the drastic change in guidance to no longer keep allergenic foods away from babies until 1 to 3 years of age and instead introduce them by 6 months of age, the prevalence of egg allergy among children fell by more than 17% in a new study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

“These findings highlight that guideline changes, when based on high-quality evidence and widely adopted, can lead to meaningful reductions in food allergy prevalence,” Jennifer Koplin, group leader of childhood allergy and epidemiology at the University of Queensland Child Health Research Centre and lead author of the new study, said in an email.

Skin patch shows promise in toddlers with peanut allergies

The study, based in Australia, adds to the growing body of evidence supporting that the latest guidance is not only considered safe but is also linked with a meaningful decline in egg allergies among children. The findings can offer some reassurance to parents who may still be uncertain about when to introduce potentially allergenic foods to their babies.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to show a population-level reduction in egg allergy after the introduction of new infant feeding guidelines,” Koplin said.

Cracking the allergy puzzle

In the United States, recommendations for preventing food allergies among children have evolved dramatically over the past few decades, leaving some parents wondering which guidance to trust and whether following the latest advice is truly safe.

In 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics advised that infants at high risk for allergies, including those with eczema or a family history of food allergies, avoid eggs until age 2. The thinking at the time was that delaying exposure might help prevent allergic reactions.

But as more evidence emerged, that guidance began to change. In 2008, the AAP updated its guidance to support introducing eggs by 6 months of age, citing that there is “little evidence” that delaying the introduction of allergenic foods prevented allergies.

Research increasingly supported that change: introducing eggs earlier appeared to reduce the risk of developing an egg allergy.

Pet cats and dogs may help protect infants from food allergies, study suggests

Globally, allergy prevention guidelines also had been updated. In Australia, infant feeding guidelines for allergy prevention were updated in 2016 to recommend introducing egg and other food allergens in the first year of life to reduce the risk of food allergy, according to the new study.

It is not unusual to see evolving guidance in medicine – but “the lesson we should take from this story isn’t only that science self-corrects. It’s that the original error was avoidable,” Dr. Aaron Carroll, of the nonprofit AcademyHealth, and Dr. Ron Keren, of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, wrote in an editorial accompanying the new study in JAMA Pediatrics.

“The field issued recommendations that outran the evidence, and families lived with the consequences. We owe families an honest accounting of that,” Carroll and Keren wrote in the editorial.

“And we owe it to the next generation of patients to hold ourselves to a higher standard—one that includes evidence grading so families understand the degree of certainty behind a recommendation, mandatory reassessment at regular intervals, and a commitment to funding the trials that can fill evidentiary gaps before guidance is issued rather than decades after,” they wrote. “When we do not have the evidence to support a recommendation, we should say so, clearly and without embarrassment, rather than fill the silence with confident advice that turns out to be wrong.”

Science got peanut allergies all wrong – until the scientific method got it right