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Essay On Peanut Allergies

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The prevalence of mild to life threatening peanut allergies amongst children has nearly doubled in the past decade (Du Toit et al., 2015). It is believed that this drastic change is related to the clinical practice guideline that was established in the year 2000 by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The guideline suggested that infants at high risk for developing peanut allergies should completely avoid this allergen until the age of 3 or older and that pregnant and breastfeeding mothers should also avoid this allergen (Chapman et al., 2006). In 2008, the guideline was completely withdrawn and a new guideline was put into place. This guideline suggested there was no reason to restrict the diets of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers and that…show more content…
According to this scale, both the LEAP and LEAP-ON study are level I-A evidence, showing both high strength and quality of evidence. The LEAP study proved that early, sustained consumption of the peanut allergen to high-risk infants significantly reduced the development of a peanut allergy. Whereas, the LEAP-ON study proved that children exposed to early, sustained consumption of the peanut allergen showed no increased likelihood of developing a peanut allergy after 12 months avoidance of the allergen. Therefore, the following PICO question is supported with these two articles: Does early exposure to the peanut allergen in infants less than 12 months of age result in developing and maintaining immunity to the allergen as compared to those infants not exposed to the peanut allergen at an early age? Since the research from the LEAP-ON study if fairly new and the study ended when children reached 72 months of age, it is impossible to tell at this time whether or not the immunity developed against the peanut allergen will maintain into adulthood. Although we do not know for sure, the likelihood of maintaining this immunity is highly likely as it was maintained in most of the study participants when complete avoidance of the peanut allergen occurred over a
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