Exposing children to eggs early in life may help ward off devastating allergies in the years to come, a study suggests.
For decades, the rate of children being diagnosed with allergies to foods like eggs and peanuts climbed, causing doctors to recommend parents avoid giving them to their infants.
Health authorities long urged parents to wait until their children were between one and three years old before giving them eggs. In 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics advised infants at a high risk of allergies, such as those with eczema or a history of food allergies, avoid eggs until age two.
Doctors believed delaying exposure until children had more developed immune systems would help prevent them from suffering allergic reactions.
But in 2008, AAP updated its guidance to suggest introducing eggs by six months of age based on studies at the time showing ‘little evidence’ that delaying the introduction of allergenic foods like eggs prevented allergies.
Now, a new study has found introducing eggs to six-month-old infants may have reduced childhood egg allergies by 17 percent.
And for children with eczema – an inflammatory skin condition driven by overactive immune responses – the effects were even more profound, with egg allergies falling nearly 40 percent.
The researchers believe the findings may lead to lasting reductions in egg allergies, which affect about one percent of children and can lead to a life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis, which can cause a child to stop breathing.
A new study found introducing eggs to babies starting at six months may reduce the rate of egg allergies
‘This study provides population-level evidence that updated infant feeding guidelines recommending earlier introduction of egg led to measurable reductions in the population prevalence of egg allergy,’ Jennifer Koplin, lead researcher and associate professor of childhood allergy and epidemiology at the University of Queensland in Australia, said.
The findings also come after a breakthrough study earlier this year found early life exposure to peanuts reduced peanut allergies in infants by 43 percent.
The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, looked at about 7,200 one-year-old Australian infants who either received their one-year checkups from 2007 to 2011 or 2018 to 2019.
Australia updated its guidelines in 2016 to recommend introducing eggs and other food allergens within the first year of life, so the two participant groups were from before and after the change was implemented.
Parents responded to questionnaires on their babies’ eating habits, allergy history and demographics, and the infants underwent skin prick tests to detect allergies to several foods, including egg whites.
The children were broken up into groups based on when their parents introduced eggs: six months or younger, seven to nine months, 10 to 11 months or 12 months and older.
Exposing children to eggs early in life may help ward off allergies in the years to come, a study suggests
The study found the proportion of infants introduced to eggs at six months old more than doubled from 25 percent in the 2007-2011 group to 57 percent in the 2018-2019 group.
Egg allergies also decreased from 9.2 percent in the 2007-2011 group to 7.6 percent in the 2018-2019 group, an 18 percent decrease.
Jennifer Koplin, lead researcher and associate professor of childhood allergy and epidemiology at the University of Queensland in Australia, said the study shows introducing eggs earlier in life may reduce allergies
For children with eczema, allergies declined from 34.6 percent to 21.9 percent.
‘What we know about the immune system is that if an allergen is introduced initially through skin exposure, the body actually produces an allergic response,’ Dr Gina Coscia, an attending physician in allergy and immunology at Northwell Health in New York, who was not involved in the study, said.
‘However, if the initial introduction of a food allergen is through oral exposure, through ingestion of the food, that actually produces a protective response to the allergen.
‘That’s actually the scientific basis for why early introduction of allergenic solids has been implemented so widely, because if you can target these infants with food in the mouth before it touches an impaired skin barrier, you can actually prevent food allergies.’
She also noted that babies with eczema are particularly sensitive to food allergies because they have an ‘impaired skin barrier,’ leaving their immune system less protected.
However, Coscia notes parents should only introduce allergens to their babies with a pediatrician’s guidance.
‘We advise parents that early introduction of the allergen into the diet is key, but maintenance of this allergen several times a week is critical in order to remain tolerant to the food,’ she said.
