Children Who are Allergic to Peanuts are More Safer at School Than at Home

New study looked at 1,941 children who had been diagnosed as being allergic to peanuts to determine how exposure occurs and how serious the outcomes are.

Despite the best efforts of parents, children who are allergic to peanuts are far more likely to be exposed to them in their own homes that at school, reveals a new study.

The researchers reviewed 567 incidents of accidental peanut exposure to allergic children and found that 37% of exposures occurred in their own home as against just 3 to 5% that occurred in schools and day care centers.

Peanuts can Help Ward Off Food-Borne Illnesses by Improving Gut Microflora
Peanut white kernel has probiotic-like effects that improve human gut microflora. It helps prevent food-borne illnesses caused by intestinal bacteria.

"We discovered that children are most at risk of exposure in their own homes," said first author of the study Sabrine Cherkaoui from University of Montreal in Canada.

Furthermore, when children do have a moderate or severe reaction to an exposure, parents and medical professionals often do not know how to react appropriately, Cherkaoui noted.

"Our study looked at 1,941 children who had been diagnosed as being allergic to peanuts to determine how exposure occurs, how serious the outcomes of the exposure are, and what treatment is given," Cherkaoui explained.

Peanut and Seafood Allergy can Now be Revealed Through a Blood Test
Researchers have found that a simple blood test can predict who can have severe allergic reactions to peanuts and seafood.

The mean age of the children at the time of their recruitment into the study was 6.9 years, and the mean length of their participation was 2.9 years.

The researchers found that 37% of exposures occurred in the child’s own home. Other people’s homes and restaurants accounted for 14.3% and 9.3% of exposures respectively.

Advertisements

Adding Peanuts With a High-Fat Meal can Ward Off Heart Diseases
Vascular dysfunction plays a major role in the development of atherosclerosis (formation of coronary plaques and lesions) that lead to coronary artery disease.

Adolescents were at a higher risk due to their general predilection towards risk-taking behavior, the researchers said.

Schools and daycares where peanuts are forbidden represented 4.9% of the cases exposure; for schools and daycares where peanuts are allowed, it is 3%. Other and unknown places accounted for 31.6% of exposures.