Australian Research finds one third of infants can remove peanut allergy diagnosis

Researchers at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute and the National Allergy Centre of Excellence found that 35% of infants suspected of having a peanut allergy did not react during a supervised oral food challenge.

The study involved 1,275 infants under 18 months old across 10 pediatric public hospitals in Australia, including sites in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Western Australia.

While 778 infants underwent the challenge, 65% of those babies had an allergic reaction, including 12% who experienced anaphylaxis. The research suggests that clinical history and initial allergy tests are not always enough to confirm a peanut allergy. By using a supervised food challenge, where medical teams give infants increasing doses of peanut, doctors can identify children who are actually peanut tolerant.

These children can then have their allergy labels removed, allowing them to eat peanut products like peanut butter without the burden of lifelong avoidance. For the babies who did react during the challenge, almost all proceeded to the ADAPT Peanut Oral Immunotherapy Program. This program provides daily doses of peanut to build tolerance, and 97.5% of those children successfully started treatment at a dose based on their challenge results.

Kirsten Perrett, the director of the National Allergy Centre of Excellence, says these results mean doctors should routinely consider supervised food challenges to confirm diagnoses before starting immunotherapy.