New Guidelines on Infants and Peanuts May Contradict Everything You've Heard Before

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases released new, detailed guidelines for pediatricians and allergists related to infants and peanut allergies. Read the new guidelines on how to introduce peanut-containing foods to reduce allergy risk, co-authored by our food allergy specialists Dr. Matthew Greenhawt and Dr. David Fleischer.

Guidelines broken down for children at high, medium and low risk of peanut allergy

• According to the new guidelines, an infant at high risk of developing peanut allergy is one with severe eczema and/or egg allergy. The guidelines recommend introduction of peanut-containing foods as early as 4-6 months for high-risk infants who have already started solid foods, after determining that it is safe to do so.
• Moderate risk children – those with mild to moderate eczema who have already started solid foods – do not need an evaluation. These infants can have peanut-containing foods introduced at home by their parents starting around six months of age.
• Low risk children with no eczema or egg allergy can be introduced to peanut-containing foods according to the family’s preference, also around 6 months.

Learn more from our experts who were featured in The Washington Post, TODAY.com, NBC Nightly News, The New York Times, NPR, NPR's Los Angeles bureau and TIME.com.