NIAID Guidelines for the Prevention of Peanut Allergy in the United States
Sunday, February 5th, 2017
NIAID Guidelines for the Prevention of Peanut Allergy in the United States
In 2015, findings from the landmark Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) study—the first randomized trial to study early allergen introduction as a preventive strategy—showed that early introduction of peanut-containing foods to infants at high risk of developing peanut allergy was safe and led to an 81 percent relative reduction in the subsequent development of peanut allergy.
Based on the size of the observed effect and the statistical significance of this result, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), established a coordinating committee and convened an expert panel to develop clinical guidelines to address the prevention of peanut allergy. These guidelines are an Addendum to the 2010 Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergy in the United States.
Three separate guidelines for infants at various risk levels for development of peanut allergy are included in the Addendum and are intended for use by a wide variety of healthcare providers.
Reference: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (2017). Guidelines for the prevention of peanut allergy in the United States. Retrieved from: https://www.niaid.nih.gov/sites/default/files/peanut-allergy-prevention-guidelines-clinician-summary.pdf.
