Biology in Action

I want to start by answering your first question that no I would not trust this study to food allergies. One of the reasons people may get allergies is if they ingest certain foods at a very very young age. This could be due to the fact that the body is still developing and has not yet adopted to the foods around themselves. Or it could just be genetics. Furthermore, by giving children small doses of peanuts, wouldn’t they have a side effect of it, if they are already allergic. I don’t believe this is the safest way to even go about eliminating the allergies of peanuts. Is there another way?

Firstly, I would not trust this study to food allergies. It seems strange to me that you would give someone a small dose of peanuts when they are allergic to the substance. I knew someone who couldn’t even smell peanuts, and I doubt giving him a small dose will help the situation.

This is an interesting study. Honestly the first question that came to my mind was wondering how anyone would get IRB or equivalent approval to test on children . . .
Regardless, I would trust this study to food allergies. Obviously, the children are given tiny dosages, which, in most cases, would only warrant an insignificant response. Also, this echoes the process of vaccination, where some of the virus in question is actually injected into the body, so the body can fight it off effectively and develop immunity. People trust that, why not try it with allergies too?

This article is certainly interesting to think about and has gotten quite a response! I think it is important to be incredibly cautious when it comes to food allergies, simply because they can be extremely severe. This “build up” technique may work, however, I would not be brave enough to try it.

Food allergies have become increasingly more severe throughout the years. Peanut allergies are especially serious. I am an Education major and have done field work in schools that are Peanut Free, meaning there can be no peanuts throughout the entire school. I think this study is very interesting. I almost feel like they should have tested this idea sooner. Small dosages of peanuts over a period time to build up tolerance is a good idea. However, I feel like some peanut allergies are too severe and that it might not work for all. I wonder if they are testing other allergies to build tolerance with this method.

As a parent, I found your post to be very interesting. I have a 15 month old daughter and I don’t think I ever even considered the fact that she could have peanut allergies. Just recently, I fixed her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Fortunately, she was not allergic to the peanut butter and enjoyed this delicious lunchtime snack. Nevertheless, I do feel that other over time children may build immunity to this allergy. I guess it’s fair to say also that it depends on the family’s history as well.

I personally do not know if I would feel safe giving small dosages of peanuts to a child with a peanut allergy. I think that this very well could be a very dangerous decision. I think that it would have to depend on the severity of the allergy. I have friends with major peanut allergies that if they kiss their significant other after they have nuts that they can have a bad reaction. I would probably not opt for feeding small doses to an allergic child, but if it works for some people then the findings of this news could provide great information in eliminating the allergy all together down the road.

The daycare where I work is peanut free. Most of the parents there would probably refuse to try this method of building up a tolerance due to the risks however I think it’s a reasonable idea. As a parent you cannot always be there to protect your child from something like peanuts (if they are allergic). They may try food their friends have at school not knowing there are peanuts in it. Building up a tolerance in an controlled environment would a safe way to protect them in the future.

I think this is okay. It is the same premise as vaccines. When you receive a vaccine you are exposed to a small amount of the virus and your body learns to fight it off. it would make sense that the same thing would be true with allergies and that you would build up immunity. i think the hard part would be determining how many peanuts would be okay and how many could be harmful. but overall, i think that this makes sense and could be a successful way of helping children get over their peanut allergies.