(RxWiki News) Introducing peanuts into your infant's diet may be a good idea after all, according to a new study.
According to this new study, introducing peanuts into an infant's diet does not negatively affect the child's growth or nutrition, despite past concerns that it could.
These conclusions follow the results seen from the Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) clinical trial, which looked at the effectiveness of introducing peanut-containing foods as a peanut allergy prevention strategy when compared to avoiding peanuts altogether.
Researchers evaluated 640 infants who were between 4 and 11 months and followed them until they were 5 years old. Infants were assigned to two groups: One group was given at least 2 grams of peanut protein three times per week, and the second group did not receive any peanuts.
These researchers were focused on determining whether those given peanuts saw negative impacts on growth, nutrition and diet. They concluded that the duration of breastfeeding was not affected. Furthermore, those infants who consumed peanuts did not differ in height, weight or body mass index when compared to those infants who avoided peanuts.
These researchers did find that those who consumed peanuts had higher fat intakes and those who avoided peanuts had higher carbohydrate intakes.
This study was recently published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) funded this study. Researchers disclosed various potential conflicts of interest, including with agencies concerned with peanuts, such as the National Peanut Board.
