Food Allergy: Update on Prevention and Tolerance

Of the many possible hypotheses which explain the recent rise in childhood food allergy, the dual allergen exposure hypothesis has been the most extensively investigated. This chapter serves as a review and update on the prevention of food allergy, and focuses on recently published Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) exploring the efficacy of oral tolerance induction in infancy for the prevention of food allergy. As a result of these RCTs, National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommendations now actively encourage the early introduction of peanut for the prevention of peanut allergy and other countries/settings recommend the inclusion of potential common food allergens including peanut and egg in complementary feeding regimens commencing at approximately 6 months of age, but not before 4 months.

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