Recent evidence, however, has turned that conventional wisdom on its head. New studies seem to suggest that there may be no reason to avoid these allergenic foods -- avoiding them actually may raise your baby’s risk of allergies.

Breast milk is still believed to be the food source least likely to trigger an allergic reaction in young infants, and experts recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first four to six months of a child’s life. At that age, the introduction of single-ingredient infant foods should begin, with new foods introduced after a period of days, giving caregivers a chance to identify and eliminate potential allergens from a child’s diet.

What About Peanuts?

There have been major increases in peanut allergies in Western countries, and the reason for this spike is not entirely clear. The American Academy of Pediatrics released a series of guidelines in 2000 recommending that peanuts be withheld from children at risk of developing food allergies until they were three years old. However, in 2008, the Academy reversed its position on the matter, stating that there was no conclusive evidence to show that avoiding certain foods beyond the age of four to six months helped prevent allergies. They did not, however, recommend giving young children these foods.

An editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine discussed the outcomes of a study that suggests feeding peanut-containing foods to infants may help prevent many peanut allergies. The results of the study are “so compelling,” and the rise of peanut allergies “so alarming” (especially given that these allergies can be life-threatening, even when exposed to small quantities), that guidelines for peanut introduction in infants should be revised, and soon, the editorial notes.

The research included participants who were four to 11 months old and who had been determined to be high risk for a peanut allergy. The infants were assigned to two groups randomly -- some would be regularly fed food containing peanuts and others were fed food that did not contain peanuts. Their diets continued until the children were five years old. The study concluded that the children who were fed food containing peanuts were “far less likely” to develop a peanut allergy than those who were not.