{"id":634594,"date":"2026-05-10T11:01:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T11:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/634594\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T11:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T11:01:20","slug":"exposure-therapy-successfully-eases-peanut-allergies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/634594\/","title":{"rendered":"Exposure Therapy Successfully Eases Peanut Allergies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exposure therapy can successfully protect preschool children from peanut allergies<\/a>, a new study says.<\/p>\n

Children ages 1 to 3 fed small amounts of peanut daily slowly became accustomed to them, researchers reported May 6 in The Lancet Regional Health Europe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll children who followed the protocol achieved the goal of eating three and a half peanuts without experiencing an allergic reaction, and most were able to consume up to 25 peanuts,\u201d researcher Caroline Nilsson<\/a> said in a news release. Nilsson is an associate professor of clinical science and education at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe consider the treatment to be safe if it is carried out under controlled conditions in a healthcare setting,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For the new study, researchers treated 75 toddlers in Stockholm with confirmed peanut allergies. Their allergies varied in severity from mild symptoms to severe reactions.<\/p>\n

Fifty children were randomly selected to receive exposure therapy in the form of peanut puffs, while the other 25 kids completely avoided peanuts.<\/p>\n

Treatment began in the hospital with a very low dose, and then continued at home with daily amounts fed to the kids. Every four to six weeks, the dose was increased until the children reached a low maintenance dose equal to about one an a half peanuts per day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first randomized study of oral immunotherapy in toddlers involving a slow up-dosing and a low maintenance dose,\u201d Nilsson said. \u201cThe peanut puffs were easily ingested, which made the treatment simple for families to follow, and we were surprised by how positive the results were.\u201d<\/p>\n

After three years, 82% of kids in the exposure therapy group could eat at least three and a half peanuts without an allergic reaction, compared to 12% of kids in the control group.<\/p>\n

Side effects tended to be mild, including itchy mouth or skin rashes. More serious reactions mainly occurred while peanut doses were being escalated, and a few children needed adrenaline injections, researchers said.<\/p>\n

They said this shows that while treatment works, it needs to take place under controlled conditions with oversight from medical professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not something that parents should attempt at home, as serious reactions can still occur,\u201d researcher Anna Asarnoj<\/a> said in a news release. She\u2019s an associate professor of women\u2019s and children\u2019s health at the Karolinska Institute.<\/p>\n

Next, researchers plan to analyze how youngsters\u2019 immune system changes during treatment. They also plan to track the children, monitoring their long-term tolerance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exposure therapy can successfully protect preschool children from peanut allergies, a new study says. Children ages 1 to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[5031,125881,97,252,253,25426,177447],"class_list":["post-634594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-allergy","tag-exposure-therapy","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-peanut","tag-preschool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}