Overview
- Food allergy rates in children under 3 fell to 0.93% in 2017–2020 from 1.46% in 2012–2015, including a roughly 43% decline in peanut allergies and a 36% drop in all IgE‑mediated food allergies.
- Researchers estimate about 57,000 to 60,000 children have avoided peanut allergies since advice shifted toward early introduction beginning in 2015.
- The Pediatrics study, led by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, analyzed electronic records for roughly 125,000 children across nearly 50 pediatric practices and tracked diagnoses to age 3 using codes and epinephrine prescriptions.
- Authors caution the analysis is observational and did not capture actual feeding practices, noting other factors such as eczema care, birth trends, antibiotics or coding patterns could influence the decline.
- As peanut diagnoses fell, egg became the most common early-childhood food allergen, and guideline milestones from the 2015 LEAP trial through 2017 and 2021 updates recommend introducing major allergens at 4 to 6 months.