Reader Question: Should You Eat Peanuts to Expose Your Baby So That They Don't Have a Peanut Allergy?

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Should you eat peanuts to expose your baby so that they don't have a peanut allergy? This was a recent question that reader asked me. Strangely, I had just read this theory in another place and wondered the same thing. 

It does not appear that there is a ton of research on this topic. However, I did find a couple studies that suggest that it may be possible that if a mother eats peanuts then the chances of her baby having a peanut allergy may be lower. 

One clinical trial published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology studied 1277 pairs of mothers and babies. The results showed that mothers who ate more peanuts during pregnancy had babies with 47% less of chance of having peanut allergies (Bunyavanich et al. 2014). Another article published in this same journal suggests that increased peanut consumption during pregnancy may even help to prevent childhood asthma (Maslova et al. 2012). In the journal Frontiers in Immunology, the authors reviewed several articles on how the mother (including her diet, genes, and own immunity) influences her baby's food allergies. These authors come to the conclusion that the mother's diet during pregnancy and while breastfeeding may prevent her child from developing food allergies (Jiao et al. 2022). 

My answer to this question is that the research seems to suggest that eating peanuts may prevent childhood allergies. Just for the fun of it, I added peanut butter to my pancake the other day!


Resources

Bunyavanich, Supinda, Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, Thomas A. Platts-Mills, Lisa Workman, Joanne E. Sordillo, Carlos A. Camargo Jr, Matthew W. Gillman, Diane R. Gold, and Augusto A. Litonjua. "Peanut, Milk, and Wheat Intake during Pregnancy Is Associated with Reduced Allergy and Asthma in Children." Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology133, no. 5 (2014): 1373-1382. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2013.11.040.

Jiao, Lefei, Chien-Wen Su, Tinglan Cao, Shasha Zheng, W. Allan Walker, and Hai Ning Shi. "Maternal Influences and Intervention Strategies on the Development of Food Allergy in Offspring." Frontiers in Immunology 13, (2022). Accessed April 8, 2025. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2022.817062.

Maslova, Ekaterina, Charlotta Granstrom, Susanne Hansen, Sesilje B. Peterson, Marin Strom, Walter C. Willett, and Sjurdur F. Olsen. "Peanut and Tree Nut Consumption during Pregnancy and Allergic Disease in Children—Should Mothers Decrease Their Intake? Longitudinal Evidence from the Danish National Birth Cohort." Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 130, no. 3 (2012): 724-732. Accessed April 8, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2012.05.014.

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