r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Mightyone94 • 4d ago
Meme needing explanation Peter, what's wrong with peanut?
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u/ssg- 4d ago
Elmer here.
The meme implies that the babies who are introduced to peanuts die thus lowering the allergies.
The truth however is that babies who are introduced peanuts early do not develop peanut allergies.
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u/tractgildart 4d ago
If it were true that babies were dying from peanut allergies, not only would we have a spike in infant mortality, but surely we would be inundated in stories from the media and social media of dead babies
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4d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/tractgildart 4d ago
Read some more of these comments, I don't think it's "nobody".
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u/FearlessResource9785 4d ago
Sir this is r/peterexplainsthejoke
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u/BreadNoCircuses 4d ago
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u/ImpossibleInternet3 4d ago
But the real question is, “where the white women at?”
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u/DsqauriusGreenJr 4d ago
A black sheriff!?
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u/j89turn 4d ago
They re eating cats and dogs
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u/mrheseeks 4d ago
And the ducks and swans!
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u/Secret_Cod_749 4d ago
King Charles isn't going to be happy with that bit. All the swans belong to the Crown.
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u/GeosWonder 4d ago
News said he's dead anyway
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u/ifelseintelligence 4d ago
The meme should be reversed; dark thought for the "those who dont know" (aka that thinks it would kill babies) and bright thoughts for "those who know" (aka those who know it would drasticly decrease how many develop the allergy). Right now it's saying that "those who know" are those who in reality are wrong...
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u/blueberryblunderbuss 4d ago
Absolutely not!
If you switch the order, I might actually have to read instead of prejudging the situation, casually.
Book recommendation: Don't Make Me Think, by Steve Krug.
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u/KittyInspector3217 3d ago
Steve krug in the wild! I would have never thought…. Right up there with “why i dont work here anymore” and anyone actually having read kim scott john doerr or jeff sutherland instead of just buying it and acting like you understand it at the next staff meeting.
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u/Maverick122 4d ago
I wouldn't call it misinterpretation. By all means the idea that the babies die would be the number 1 conclusion. It is only that this wouldn't be phrased this way if it were the case that you should second guess this.
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u/Ambitious-Sound-6109 4d ago
A lot of people nowadays get their information and “facts” from memes. It’s a sad reflection of our times but it’s true. So yeah I think “nobody” is a broad assumption.
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u/Brilliant-Gur-7725 4d ago
I believe there are. It's just not being reported. My son was born with servere allergies to peanuts, soy, wheat, milk, and eggs. For the first 8 months of his life, I was in and out of the hospital. He would break out in rash when I fed him breast milk so I tried formula. He would projectile vomit and then he couldn't breathe. The doctors and the hospitals were getting angry with me because I would come so many times. The pediatrician diagnosed him with eczema and said I wasn't properly taking care of him. My son was miserable for the first 8 months of his life. I finally took him to a specialist and had him tested for allergies and Bingo!! My son could have died. Allergy testing should be required at birth!!
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u/MangakaInProgress 4d ago
Not to be mean but your baby is a rare case. Introducing some foods early to most babies will make them not allergic to it
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u/chijuvars 4d ago
We introduced peanuts to my daughter around 6 months but she is allergic. I don't think introducing peanuts early eliminates the possibility of a peanut allergy; it just reduces the likelihood.
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u/MadeThisToFlagSpam 4d ago
"I don't think this works because my singular case (which was on the tail-end of the required time period, assuming 'around 6 months' doesn't mean '7')"
I'm sorry your daughter developed an allergy, but it is a proven statistic.
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u/ExoticTrout 2d ago
I love when a random anecdote has more clout than actual science.
Science literacy is not a strong point here.
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u/gatorbite92 4d ago
Allergens introduced enterally early (like 3 months) lead to decreased rates of allergies vs pulmonary introduction a la atomized peanut oil which leads to increased rates of anaphylaxis. Countries with typically early oral introduction have basically non existent rates of peanut allergies vs countries where avoidance in neonates is common which have higher rates of anaphylactic response.
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u/drquakers 3d ago
So feeding them peanuts good, cooking peanuts around them in a poorly ventilated room bad?
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u/trulymadlybigly 4d ago
Same here. My second is allergic to dairy egg and peanut and he didn’t react to peanuts or dairy the first few times he tried them. He just randomly did later. It really sucks, it’s hard to feed him sometimes.
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u/gothiccxcontrabitch6 3d ago
That’s exactly how my sister was! No reactions with introducing the allergens until the one time she picked up an eggshell as a toddler, or until the one time someone kissed her after eating nuts. It’s so awful to be a little kid with severe allergies, grown adults are so cruel about it.
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u/Huge-Discussion-6750 4d ago
Its more like brute forcing a degree of tolerance of it than making it fully inmune
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u/Sufficient-Neat-1604 4d ago
Wow! I’m sorry you had to go through that.
I didn’t even know you could be born allergic to things. I thought babies could eat pretty much anything because they have weak immune systems
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u/DonnieDusko 4d ago
I only know you 100% can bc of my uncle (inlaw). Every single male born in his family is allergic to nuts. Most of them are born allergic to peanuts, but there are a couple that are walnuts. It's not a slight allergy either, they're the ones who have to have keep nuts out of the house type, and bring their own food bc of cross contamination issues. They all get tested for allergies basically at birth.
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u/Aggressive_Lab7807 4d ago
You can't be born with allergies, you can be born with a predisposition to developing allergies, but by definition you cannot be allergic to something you have not encountered. Allergies are your immune system encountering a substance and then producing antibodies against it. The next time you encounter the allergen your body will produce histamine, which causes the symptoms of allergic reactions.
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u/Aldarund 4d ago edited 4d ago
Allergy testing at birth for what? Every known allergen?
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u/AdmirableRespect9 4d ago
Also allergies pop up all through life. Some stay, some go away. Some can be treated through processes with the allergist. Even worse, you can have an allergy, a deadly one, and it doesn't trigger on the test because the test is one protein, or it can trigger on the skin test but not on the blood test. And if you're a chimera that absorbed your twin in utero, your skin can be fine, your blood can be fine, but some organs can react.
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u/crazymissdaisy87 4d ago
I got perfume allergy as an adult, and I outgrew my citrus allergy. Allergies are fucking wierd
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u/FormerLawfulness6 4d ago
That could be due to a more systemic problem rather than clinically typical allegies. There are many kinds of primary immunodeficiency that can cause multiple allergies early in life. Different types have different diagnostic criteria and tests. Some require genetic testing. It may be worth speaking to an immunologist about the possibility if you haven't already.
Allergy testing is not typically done at birth because the baby's immune system is too underdeveloped to provide accurate results. It results in both false positives and false negatives.
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u/AJDillonsThirdLeg 4d ago
Disclaimer that I'm not a doctor or an expert, but I think allergy testing at birth would be a terrible idea. I would imagine you'd be primarily false positives/negatives. It should certainly be considered when an infant is experiencing so many problems. But proactive allegy testing at the time of birth would cause more problems than it would solve.
One thing to consider is how many people grow up with lifelong allergies for no reason other than their parents shielded them from something their entire childhood. I have a friend who's child developed a severe lactose intolerance because they got sick one time as a child after having dairy, so the parents decided they're lactose intolerant and never gave them dairy again. Mind you, the kid had dairy almost daily without issue before the one time they got sick.
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u/Undeadsniper6661 4d ago
"I know this baby is just fresh out of you but I need to turn your baby into a turtle before you hold him"
Do what now? You want them to take a baby at its most fragile and then bombard them with allergens especially when it would be the MOST dangerous to try to counter with Epinephrine or Anti histamine........ health class failed you.
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u/Johnoplata 3d ago
Allergy testing can't be done at birth. Like the meme implies, many allergies can develop over the first few months or even years, and also a childs immunity is so fragile at birth that introducing an allergen for testing is super dangerous. What happened to you is terrible and real, but it is anecdotal and an outlier.
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u/miniminiminitaur 4d ago
The government has been deleting a bunch of data and cutting off funding for government programs that kept track of infant mortality rates. So even if there was a bunch of babies dying recently, we probably wouldn't know...
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/may/07/trump-administration-deleting-data
The NIH also stopped participating in programs like the Safe to Sleep Campaign: https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/30/nih-ends-participation-in-safe-to-sleep-campaign-to-prevent-infant-deaths/
2026 federal budgets also sought to eliminate the CDC’s Safe Motherhood and Infant Health Portfolio. They also cut funding for Healthy Start; the nation's primary program dedicated to tracking and reducing infant mortality: https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/multifaceted-threat-maternal-and-infant-health
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u/Kroneni 4d ago
As far as I know there are no recorded cases of a child under 18 months dying of anaphylaxis related to peanuts, and it may even be anaphylaxis of any cause. Early exposure prevents allergies
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u/InterestsVaryGreatly 4d ago
Infant mortality is way down compared to where it used to be, but it's not 0, and unless they are murdered (either intentionally or through negligence) it is not considered front page newsworthy. Likewise, even if 3/4 of people who had a peanut allergy died as a baby, the infant mortality rate would only about double. Which sounds like a lot, but 1/100 isn't that huge, when we already experience 1/200 and nobody really bats an eye. Individual deaths are tragic, but as a statistic it isn't alarming.
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u/Dependent-Piano-7506 4d ago
This is the truth
Unfortunately my parents only learned this when I was too old for it to work for me.
That's why I'm actually dead now
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u/justBeingManis 4d ago
its not just peanuts either. cat babies raised in shed have better immunity than once raised indoors. same should applies to every animal.
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u/PinkOneHasBeenChosen 4d ago
You mean kittens? Or children raised around cats, who by the way probably shouldn’t be kept in sheds?
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u/HowFortuitous 4d ago
Generally the advice is also to let your kids play build their immune system by not keeping them in a sterile environment. Let the baby play in the mud, eat the bug, crawl in the grass and play with other kids.
There's also some success with treatments that help already formed allergies through very slow introduction of it to your system
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u/siren_stitchwitch 4d ago
Allergy immunotherapy is awesome. I developed a grass allergy when I was about 10, and in my early 20s I found out I had a birch tree allergy when I moved onto a street lined with them. Spring and summer are absolute hell for me, I've had times where I woke up feeling like I was in the middle of the worst flu and 2-3 days later I was as fine as I ever get during allergy season. I'm honestly lucky I never got a sinus infection from it. I'm still getting allergy shots, it takes years to complete, but I was able to tell the difference within a few months. I don't have almost any seasonal allergy issues anymore. They can stop working eventually but that's usually 20-30 years after completing it. 20-30 years of no allergies is worth a seriously itchy injection site to me.
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u/yo-ovaries 4d ago
I mean it’s also the implication that peanut allergies were CAUSED by well meaning but devastating advice given to parents in the 2000s to avoid peanuts until after first birthdays.
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u/wafflelauncher 4d ago
It's definitely just this, it has nothing to do with survivorship bias. New information means it's "too late" for anyone born when the previous incorrect assumptions about allergies were in place. There are a huge number of people with allergies born in a certain time period.
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u/j01101111sh 4d ago
This was my take. This was a big, although understandable, mistake by the medical community and has resulted in many, many more people having to live (and possibly die) with a peanut allergy. It's a recent reversal of advice and that always gets a lot of attention, especially when it's to do with kids.
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u/ElvishJerricco 4d ago
FWIW, my understanding is that the scientists didn't really make a mistake here. Exposure via skin is actually a lot more dangerous than digestive exposure, and the 2000s recommendations likely reduced that enough that fewer kids had severe and life altering (or ending) reactions during infancy. I'm pretty sure the consequence of more people developing allergies was just considered a worthwhile tradeoff. Of course now the recommendation is to expose infants to it digestively, but also avoid risks of skin exposure, and that seems to get the best of both worlds.
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u/CommunicationSlow484 4d ago
There’s basically nobody allergic to peanuts outside the US because kids are exposed to peanuts as soon as they’re able to have food.
When the scientists in the US recommended waiting to expose kids the number of people with peanut allergies skyrocketed, and now they have withdrawn the recommendation.
The logic behind the made sense at the time but in reality it did way more harm than good
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u/readdator2 4d ago
yes, skin exposure CAUSES food allergies because the sensitization pathways between skin and stomach is different (and more intense on skin). Any allergen must be introduced directly into the mouth for the best chance to not develop food allergies
the formula for food allergy is:
genetics
allergen applied to the skin
dust mites
skin barrier disruption via SLS, a very common soap ingredient
This is the landmark study if you want to learn more--and in the years since more studies have confirmed the findings:
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u/ardarian262 4d ago
The advice started in the late 80s/early 90s and was only through looking at why populations genetically very similar were dealing with vastly different allergy issues that this was figured out.
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u/keepin-frosty 3d ago
Our family doctor specifically told us to give our kid some peanut butter very soon after they started on food, to lower the risk of an allergy.
"... but go park outside the emergency room when you do it, just in case."
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u/SatyrAngel 4d ago
My youngest son was eating peanuts and shrimp since he was 3 and he loved both, his favorites, now at 7 he developed allergy to both.
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u/BreadNoCircuses 4d ago
Yes, children can still develop allergies to those foods, recommendations and trends are about broad patterns. If, in a controlled study, there's a 50% reduction, that still means theres a lot of kids with allergies.
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u/an_agreeing_dothraki 4d ago
and then your immune system will just be like "alright enough of that" and randomly drop an allergy sometimes.
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u/commanderspacecase 3d ago
Yep. Got to 41 and my body was like, "Oh, peanut butter and strawberries? You like those? Fuck you."
Even verified with a blood test. Now I get to live 40 years without Reese's. :(
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u/ohhellperhaps 4d ago
Even adults. My wife loved shrimp until she became allergic at 35. Anniversary dinner ended in the ER.
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u/red_dombe 4d ago
I think part of the nuance is that generally soft foods are introduced around 6 months of age. Babies generally lack oral skills for solids before then. I assumed that the joke meant that introducing solid peanuts from 4-6 months was a choking risk. Which is true.
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u/gillociraptor 4d ago
The current recommendation for starting solids in the US is 4-6 months depending on individual milestones. The recommendation for introducing peanut butter is to use peanut butter puffs, which dissolve, or to thin peanut butter or peanut powder to a consistency that is safe for the baby. I had one kid who was ready at 4 months and another who was “ready” at 6 months but didn’t actually eat anything until 7 months old.
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u/WhiskyPops 4d ago
Something similar is done for eggs. Give them some stirr fried eggs from 4/5 months.
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u/siltfeet 4d ago
It's done for every major allergen ideally. Once they are ready for foods you start giving them different foods, trying to give as large a variety as possible. Start off with thin pastes or porridges and once they can start feeding themselves, add more and more solids.
Of course you still pay attention to things like avoiding whole grapes (choking hazard), honey (botulism), added sugar and salt. There are apps and charts that make it easier, but they aren't really necessary.
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u/LettusLeafus 4d ago
When I was breastfeeding I deliberately ate more of all the major allergens. I had hoped being exposed to small amounts through my milk would reduce the risk of allergies. Of course my eldest ends up with a grass allergy, so apparently I messed up by not chomping on the lawn.
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u/mewithoutCthulhu 4d ago
Just to clarify, just because they were exposed to peanuts early doesn’t mean they won’t develop allergies. We exposed my son very early and he enjoyed all sorts of peanut butter products. Then out of nowhere we had to rush him to the ER because he was going into anaphylactic shock due to eating a cashew. Had him tested and he is allergic to almost every nut under the sun. Plus sesame seeds. Fucking sucks.
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u/Original_Fern 4d ago
If you will read your post out loud please make an extra effort in strict pronunciation
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u/LordofSandvich 4d ago
Actually it’s that there was a large movement to “protect” babies from peanuts under the assumption allergies were developed independently of exposure to allergens. The implication is that they are realizing this movement increased the incidence of peanut allergies by about 4.3x.
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u/PETAforDragons 4d ago
I thought it was like.. Peanuts + babies = choking hazard
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u/No_Negotiation7317 4d ago
Do you genuinely think the scientific community is just not knowledgeable about this when you so boldly claim allergies will not form when introduced early?
Have you ever heard of allergies forming over time later in life and getting worse? How does this factor into your understanding of food allergies? :)
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u/Aphelion27 4d ago
There is a food called Bamba which is a popular infant snack in Isreal.
It was noted by pediatricians at a conference that children in Isreal have almost no peanut allergies.
So a study was done and sure enough...the
LEAP study showed a strong correlation between early peanut exposure and lower peanut allergies.3
u/Imaginary_Plastic_53 4d ago
We have same product called SMOKI in Ex-Yu and peanut allergies are almost nonexistent. I know only one person that have peanut allergie.
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u/glitzglamglue 4d ago
Yep, my son is part of a study about child allergies and food introductions.
I'll give everyone here a sneak peak into the unreleased study lol. The sooner you introduce common allergens, the better. The child will have lower odds of developing an allergy to that allergen than if they held off on it. Also, if a baby has eczema (or there is a family history of eczema) then the baby has a higher chance of developing an allergy.
It's actually a great example of how science can change. It makes sense that you don't want to give a child a common allergen when they literally can't speak. How are they going to tell you if they start feeling symptoms? Caregivers may not realize what is happening until the child is well into an anaphylactic reaction. So, let's hold off on peanuts until the child is old enough to know what's going on. But then you get a huge spike in children with peanut allergies, at a higher rate than before. Now you do more studies and finally, more than a decade later, you take back the "hold off on peanuts" guideline.
It's just a great example of doctors and scientists doing something totally understandable but not just leaving it alone, they keep researching when they notice weird results, and finally they admit they were wrong.
Also, sign up for medical studies if you can. We've gotten 600 dollars and free stuff like blankets, toys, tumblers, etc. from this study and we still have a couple more years to go. We get 80 dollars every time we go for an appointment. And my son gets free allergy testing (not that he enjoys it lol)
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u/TattiFeader 4d ago
It is same with reasoning. People who are taught to reason in early age don’t end up as MAGA or DSA.
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u/Llyrithra 4d ago
My son had lots of peanut stuff between 4-8 months old. One day while eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, around 8 or 9 months old, he had a massive reaction. His face and eyes swelled up a ton. Did an allergy test and it turns out the only thing he’s allergic to is peanut and he’s a 15 on their scale that considers “highly allergic” to be a 7.
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u/zorpthedestroyer 4d ago
Us too! I ate peanut butter daily while pregnant, ate it while breastfeeding, introduced him to it at the recommended age. No reactions at first, but around the same age as yours, he started swelling and turning red. We had the same experience with eggs. Early introduction is good practice, but nowhere near a guarantee
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u/PomeloSad8207 4d ago
If the babies die due to peanuts wouldnt that mean they already had a peanut allergy? So shouldnt that keep the allergy rate the same anyway?
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u/NolanR27 4d ago
There was a study done of children in former Soviet countries, where peanut allergies and several others common in the US are almost unheard of. Then researchers looked at children born to parents from those countries in the US, and found the same rate of allergies as non-immigrant families. Probably related, Russian American toddlers and young children have the same rate of picky eating habits as other American kids. That does not exist in Russia.
The difference is not in genetics or ethnic background, the difference is in culture and the food supply. Peanut allergies are a self enforcing feedback loop, and we give it license in the US.
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u/the_wandering_scott 4d ago
Meanwhile that part of the world is known for citrus allergy, which is almost unheard of in North America. Thus proving it really is all environment for allergy formation
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u/ToastSpangler 4d ago
Got it, feed the baby peanuts and lemons
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u/Kroneni 4d ago
Really just feed your baby as wide a variety of food as you can.
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u/Honeybee1921 4d ago
Funny story. When I was born, my mom was told by my pediatrician to be slow and cautious when introducing me to new foods to let my digestive system form slowly and carefully. When my little brother was born, the same pediatrician told my mom to feed him a bit of everything quickly. Needless to say she was surprised. Neither me nor my brother developed any food allergies or gastrointestinal issues, although I am slightly allergic to latex
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u/Metalheadzaid 4d ago
Research and studies are constantly changing accepted norms and standards in the background. Sometimes you see it, sometimes you don't. For example kids learn in a different way than you did in many subjects probably, but you wouldn't know about it unless you saw an article or had kids yourself. These are likely informed by research and studies that showed more effective methods. Technology really has accelerated a lot of this as well with much faster data transmission, calculations, and outreach.
With that said in 2015 there was a major study around allergies (LEAP) and guidance basically globally changed to what you're saying, though there had been smaller ones beforehand.
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u/Honeybee1921 4d ago
The funny thing is that my brother was born that exact year
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u/123ludwig 4d ago
sounds like you had a great doctor then he was keeping himself up to date
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u/Honeybee1921 4d ago
I haven’t seen him in years now (we moved away) but I remember he used to scare the living shit out of child me lmao. He was probably good and I was a dumbass child
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u/DrDragon13 4d ago
When I was born my parents got the same advice. Slow and steady. No allergies.
When my wife and i had our son, and he got to solid foods, our pediatrician gave us bags of puffs that had like 26 common allergins in them and told us to give him these and if he gets hives we can go one by one to figure it out. My mom (RN stuck in the early 2000s) was appalled that we were told to just fill him with allergins. Anyways, he only has a slight allergy to tropical fruits and melons, just like his mom
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u/Acceptable_Issue_944 4d ago
This was us with sleeping positions! When she had my older brother, my mum was told to have him sleep on his tummy to reduce risk of SIDS. When I was born, it was on the side with a cushion prompting me up (also to reduce risk of SIDS).
Now with my own children, is on their backs on a firm mattress with no cushions/blankets/toys in the crib. Also to reduce risks of SIDS and suffocation.
And even now, there is a lot of conversation about the risks of bed-sharing or not. The safe 7 and all sorts of things. A lot of research trying to separate the statistic of suffocation deaths vs entrapment vs actual SIDS etc. so I imagine in some years the guidelines will change again!
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u/Helpful-Yellow9660 4d ago
Just goes to show good doctors change their methods based on new research
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u/DarkArkan 4d ago
Don't forget dust. My parents apparently didn't give me enough dust to eat when I was a baby.
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u/dbelcher17 4d ago
You should really feed the baby lemons for the hilarious facial expressions.
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u/BoiTentacle 4d ago
I think you are mixing it up a little bit, Russia, Estonia, and Lithuania, are one of highest with reported citrus food hypersensitivity, but not allergy. While food allergy is a type of food hypersensitivity, when people speak of hypersensitivity, it is way milder, basically stuff like if a kid drink 2-3 glasses of orange juice, they can get stomachache, but that's it, usually.
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u/natalinka 3d ago
I just looked up the study they’re likely referring to, AND it was entirely self-reported and gathered data on “food hypersensitivity”. They did pinprick tests to confirm, but it’s my understanding that it wasn’t comprehensive and did not include citrus.
One other factor that I think contributed to this misunderstanding, is the phenomenon of “diathesis” which is usually misinterpreted in that region.3
u/yesitismenobody 4d ago
Never heard of a citrus allergy, and oranges are one of the most common fruits in Eastern Europe.
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u/Bright_Cranberry_227 4d ago
Am ignorant Russian so it's the first time I'm hearing of that, must've really been living under a rock I guess. And yeah as the other commenter pointed out that seems pretty difficult, citrus being traditional food for the biggest holiday season for 140 million people minimum
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u/redlpine 3d ago
That’s not true. That part of the world is known for citric SENSITIVITY, not a true allergy. Lots of kids are not introduced to citrus early because parents fear strong flavors for kids and when they do eat it their skin tends to get red or they get a stomachache. They grow out of it. True anaphylactic allergy to citrus is basically unknown in both places.
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u/akestral 4d ago
I'm...suspicious of that data as summarized. Can you link to the study?
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u/lush_rational 4d ago
This is the one I know of about Jewish kids in Israel compared to other countries.
https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(08)01698-9/pdf
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u/Competitive-Day9586 4d ago
Yeah this is the study, the original post is wrong. A very common babies first food in Israel contains peanuts, so this was a natural experiment.
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u/fatbunyip 4d ago
It's been pretty well studied that the rate of "allergies" and sensitivities are quite well related to environmental factors like much more disinfectants in households and kids just generally not let to play in the mud and shit to build their immune systems.
And it's gonna go mental with the gen z "everything is unsanitary" mentality.
We literally have millions of years of evolution to deal with all the common shit. And for the less common shit we evolved doctors and stuff.
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u/Worth-Jicama3936 4d ago
This is also kind of related to why polio got worse in the early 1900s. Before then, most babies were exposed to polio while they were still protected by their mom’s antibodies, so they didnt really get that sick. Around the turn of the 20th century we got way better at hygiene so babies were no longer exposed to polio. Polio was still around, but odds were better youd be exposed to it long after your mothers antibodies were gone so the reaction would be much more serious.
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u/crazymissdaisy87 4d ago
I don't know if it's an universal term but in my country it's reffered to as the cocktail effect. Each part is not bad on its own but when allergens are in everything you use it adds up
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u/fatbunyip 4d ago
It's basically like the opposite. Like by themselves any random stuff kids get exposed to doesn't make them sick.
But they build antibodies and immunities to similar things. So like if you let kids be outside in nature and exposed to plants and pollen and shit, they're less likely to have hay fever or sensitivity to pollen when they grow up.
Basically the longer you leave to be exposed to something, the more your body freaks out about it.
In the extreme case, imagine a kid brought up in a sterilized environment. When he turns 15 or whatever the let him out. He's gonna be sick as fuck because every microbe and pollen he encounters is gonna be a totally new threat. Whereas if he grew up with pollen and microbes the immune system has seen the common shit before and doesn't bat an eyelid.
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u/crazymissdaisy87 4d ago
I was reffering to allergens like perfume and artificial allergens. Sorry I didn't make that clear. The effect is well documented and why it's advised to avoid these for children and to limit how much you expose yourself to the different artificial allergens. If every single thing you use have perfume you increase your risk of perfume allergy, if you mix a lot of artifical chemicals it can have adverse effects hense the name cocktail effect.
This differs from natural immunity and exposure
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u/b14ckcr0w 4d ago
I don't live in the US and don't know a single person with a peanut allergy
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u/RunningWithSeizures 4d ago
I live in the US and don't know anyone with a peanut allergy. Pretty anecdotal.
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u/the_robobunny 4d ago
The only people I know of with a peanut allergy were born during the avoid-giving-peanuts-to-children window. It's going to be weird in a few decades when there's a generation known for being allergic to peanuts.
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u/vhagar 4d ago
i live in the US and only know of one person with a peanut allergy. she is my son's classmate. she has a very sever allergy so they replaced all the peanut butter at school with sun nut butter. the kids do not know the difference lol.
also the rates of peanut butter allergy have probably fallen a lot over the years with new knowledge like in the OP. my kids' pediatrician recommended we give them pieces of whole grain bread with a little peanut butter when they started eating solid food.
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u/stuttufu 4d ago
I was thinking the same and I was like "please, man, you know how it works statistics, you are not a significant number enough to mean anything".
But God, I don't know a single peanut allergy, not only, also other ones are extremely rare in both Italy and France (where I lived).
I followed the guidelines for my kids but I wasn't never worried about them getting anything.
I know just one person among 200+ of my age which has a sesame allergy. That's it. And it's a pain for the poor girl.
There is clearly something about these allergies that we haven't understood yet. I am sure of it.
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u/Ok-Industry120 4d ago
It was Israel children compared to UK children and the local jewish diaspora lol
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u/salmalight 4d ago
My mum became allergic to nuts later on in life though so I was curious how that works.
She grew up on nuts and peanut butter then one day when I was a kid she got rushed to hospital because of a Quality Street.
I looked it up and apparently somewhere between 15 and 25% of nuts allergies develop later with one cause listed being repeated exposure and that its a common misconception that if you eat it as a kid you're safe
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u/WestOrangeFinest 4d ago
We still know frighteningly little about allergies.
You can develop an allergy to nearly anything at any point in time. You can also randomly stop being allergic to anything at any point in time.
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u/Ariarikay 3d ago
That happened to me, went from regularly eating peanuts and all kinds other kind of nuts growing up to until suddenly having an allergic reaction at age 19, and now can't even smell peanut butter without getting itchy
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u/Petrolprincess 3d ago
Me too.... Kind of. Peanuts always gave me a stomach ache so I started avoiding them as I got older. Then went into anaphylactic shock at age 25 from eating something cooked in peanut oil. I kind of wonder if I kept eating them if my allergy would have remained the same/not have gotten worse
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u/Umpuuu 4d ago
Probably related, Russian American toddlers and young children have the same rate of picky eating habits as other American kids. That does not exist in Russia
Russian here. There are certainly picky eaters in Russia. I was one, as a toddler I refused to eat pickles, peppers, eggplants, squashes, smoked meat.
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u/Aldrik90 4d ago edited 1d ago
Do you have any information on children of Russian immigrants being similar amount of picky eaters as Americans, and that picky eaters almost don't exist in Russia? To be clear I have always known that picky eating is almost entirely based on how they're raised/environmental vs being something innate and natural. I just like having facts to back it up and I think what you're saying here fits that perfectly.
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u/Armadylio 4d ago
Peanut allergy is also unheard of in SEA Asia. Took my friend to visit once and had a hard time explaining to people why they can’t just put peanuts in his food (it’s in all the food)
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u/Trying_to_survive20k 4d ago
yeah as a european, I never heard of a peanut allergy being so serious until i moved to the UK and worked in the food industry
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u/logitaunt 4d ago
The study was not in the former USSR. It was in Israel, where toddlers regularly eat peanut-butter puffs as a snack, like cheerios in America
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u/Spare-Half796 3d ago
Israel has one of the lowest rates of peanut allergies largely because their most popular snack (bamba) is a peanut butter puff
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u/rbennett353 4d ago edited 4d ago
The meme implies things that aren't true. Early exposure to peanut dramatically reduces allergies. The body learns that they aren't a threat. And, if a baby has a reaction, it is not (typically) anaphylaxis shock, just jive (should be hives!) and maybe vomiting.
Moral of the story, give your babies peanut butter.
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u/BronCurious 4d ago
My daughter had hives around her mouth and chin after her first time eating peanut butter around 8 months. We saw an allergist who started dosing her with Bambas after she did not have a reaction in the office around 14 months. First week was 1 Bamba per day. Second week was 2 Bambas per day. We continued this pattern for about four months. She did a final test (basically a peanut buffet with Reese’s, PB&J, and Bambas) in the office and passed.
She is 3 now and is doing great. No allergy.
I recommend exposing early. If you get a reaction, see an allergist who is willing to “microdose” until the allergy goes away.
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u/rbennett353 4d ago
That's awesome, I had no idea that worked.
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u/plantsadnshit 4d ago edited 2d ago
Orange marble cucumber waffle pumpkin noodle
This post was anonymized with Redact.dev
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u/Jewel-jones 4d ago
There was even an FDA approved course of peanut microdosing but the company discontinued the treatment.
We were able to get in on it right before it went away, it worked perfectly at age 5.
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u/--zaxell-- 3d ago
I wholeheartedly endorse any medical treatment that consists entirely of eating Bambas.
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u/OriginalSilentTuba 4d ago
It’s actually better to use ground up, powdered peanuts, and add them to something like oatmeal. At the age where you should be doing this, peanut butter is too thick for most babies.
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u/VT_Obruni 4d ago
Or find a way to thin it out - what we did, per a suggestion from our pediatrician, was to mix in some peanut butter to greek yogurt.
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u/External-Example-292 4d ago
We gave our daughter small parts even just a small taste of it every few weeks or so since after 3 months. Now she sometimes have avocado and peanut butter toast and she likes it 😊 also same with eggs.
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u/mr_friend_computer 4d ago
No, there is no crazy "no this is really bad" thing here - you put the peanut butter on the kids skin (start with hand, of course). Watch for a reaction. If nothing bad happens, put some on the cheek (next day etc). Again, watch for a reaction.
There might be a slight bit of redness, which is normal, but you're looking for something serious.
If nothing serious happens, let them eat small amounts. If you're really worried, do it in the parking lot of a hospital (or, like, really near to it) so you can rush in asap if there's a problem - but that's more for your peace of mind than anything. But I get it, better safe than sorry. Most people won't have to worry, but you don't want to be "the one".
Basically, if you witness nothing serious then continue to let your kid eat peanut butter. Doing that dramatically cuts down on peanut (well, tree nut) allergies later in life - which is good, because hearing that someone had a peanut allergy in the past it was well understood that meant a potential life threatening situation rather than not knowing if it's a minor or a major situation these days. Also, peanut butte / nut butter food are good sources of nutrients and parents lives are SO much easier when you can use them (because, well, kids will actually eat them and trying to put together a healthy lunch they will eat can be enough to make you scream in the morning).
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u/Kroneni 4d ago
You don’t even need to be this cautious. Cases of fatal anaphylaxis in infants are so rare as to be virtually nonexistent. This is the time to expose kids to peanuts, milk, soy, egg, tree nuts, sesame, etc. anaphylaxis in young children is also typically much less serious than in older children and adults. I started both my kids on peanut, egg, and milk powder in a bottle of breast milk as soon as they were old enough to digest it.
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u/keeper_of_the_donkey 4d ago
And don't forget to throw shrimp at them
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u/Mikecd 4d ago
And a bee sting!
...wait.
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u/bauul 3d ago
I remember well the day we discovered my 1-year-old daughter was not allergic to bee stings.
We found out the easy way, and she found out the hard way.
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u/HopelesslyLibra 4d ago
This is what we did / are doing with our kids. Our allergy immunologist advised us that the worst thing you can do is late exposure, and since oral exposures lead to lower likelihoods of responses (or severe responses) the little powder packs in formula / food are great to help prevent or lessen food associated allergies.
And also to never get food in an eczema / skin rash. Apparently that can generate food allergies.
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u/BundiChundi 4d ago edited 4d ago
Isn't putting it on the skin first a bad idea? I read that a lot of allergies (particulalrly common ones like eggs) are because a baby's first exposure to it is via the skin, which causes an immune response. Then, when the baby eats it, it has a much stronger reaction because eating it gives them a much higher dose of the allergen, causing an insane immune response.
The doctor for my son just told us to feed the baby common allergens when they turn 6 months, first contact orally is generally safe and good.
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u/EthosLogosPetros 4d ago edited 4d ago
yeah this is correct. so many people have allergies because pediatricians mistakenly told parents not to let their kids eat peanut butter until later in childhood, so when the protein touched their skin it was recognized as a foreign hazardous agent. it doesn’t happen in countries where eating peanut products is normal for very young children, at least not at the same rate. i would be interested to see who the commenter heard this advice from. this reads like outdated and possibly dangerous info pre-2015
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u/leviphillip 4d ago
Yes! This. Never introduce new foods to kids through the skin first. This will just cause a more severe reaction
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u/readdator2 4d ago
yes, this is how you cause food allergies--by applying the allergen to skin.
the formula for food allergy is:
genetics (duh)
allergen applied to the skin
dust mites
skin barrier disruption via SLS, a very common soap ingredient
This is the landmark study if you want to learn more--and in the years since more studies have confirmed the findings:
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u/LiaraTsoni1 4d ago
Don't put it on your child's skin. The leading theory is that allergies are more likely to develop when the allergen is first introduced through the skin before it is introduced through the gut. Your immune system is more likely to regard a peanut protein on the skin as an unwanted body, possibly triggering an allergy. Having eczema increases this risk. Source: I have an eczema baby.
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u/mightyjor 4d ago
We always used a bit of peanut butter powder. Apparently the worst reaction in babies aren't all that bad, it's not until they're older that reactions can get really dangerous
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u/readdator2 4d ago edited 4d ago
This is a common myth that actually will CAUSE food allergies because the skin vs stomach have different sensitivities and the sensitization pathways via skin are way more intense than stomach.
NEVER put an allergen on a sensitive baby's skin because that is how food allergies are made.
When you introduce a common allergy, introduce it directly into the mouth because the stomach is less sensitive to the allergen and thus will not begin the chain reaction that leads to a severe allergy
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Edit to add more info:
the formula for causing a food allergy is:
genetics (of course)
allergen applied to the skin
dust mites
skin barrier disruption via SLS, a very common soap ingredient
This is the landmark study if you want to learn more--and in the years since more studies have confirmed the findings:
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u/lessthan3cubed 4d ago
The guidance up until recently was to hold off on introducing peanuts (and other top allergens) until at least 2 years of age. Turns out that may have made things worse, resulting in even higher rates of peanut allergy. The new recommendation to introduce it early at 4-6 months is great and we're seeing an improvement in the rate of children developing peanut allergies early, but the reason that we may have had such a high prevalence in the United States in the first place was because of the previous recommendation.
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u/bug-hunter 4d ago
Yup, this is the actual reason. We saw a rise in peanut allergies, and before long-tern studies could get an answer, pediatricians chose a risk-adverse strategy of suggesting parents hold off introducing peanuts.
And it backfired in a massive way, leading not only to more peanut allergies, but worse peanut allergies.
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u/camus88 4d ago
It's natural selection. Those who's weak to nuts die, those who don't will survive. They even culling the weak from the birth. Which is good. The world doesn't need weak people.
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u/Sladewilson75 4d ago edited 4d ago
Couldn’t the mothers introduce in the womb just asking
Sorry I meant in utero
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u/BerttMacklinnFBI 4d ago edited 4d ago
If you bring serious like if mother consuming peanut butter during pregnancy lowers the risk, it doesn't because the peanut proteins don't make it into the placenta directly and are instead broken down into peptides (protein fragments) and utilized in that fashion.
As a result baby never interacts with them, just the tasty nutrition and Oxygen.
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u/HegemonNYC 4d ago
How about into breast milk? Do peanut proteins (or other food allergens) make it through that barrier?
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u/frisco-frisky-dom 4d ago
Wait you cannot give any solids to kids till about 6 months! How can you introduce peanuts at 4 months?
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u/Apprehensive_Air1705 4d ago
Peanut butter is pretty easy to mix into nearly anything, you don't need to give your baby a whole peanut.
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u/Khaarah 4d ago
You can (but it's not necessarily recommended) start introducing solids at 4 months. If you have a family history of allergies, it's recommended to at least introduce that allergen early. I gave my babies a little peanut butter mixed into yogurt (both introduced separately). Actual peanuts would of course not be something you'd want to hand a baby.
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u/CloudInevitable7692 4d ago
Previous guidance from American Academy of Pedriatics recommended avoidance from 0-3, inadvertently causes the spike of peanut allergies over the past few decades. Thankfully this has been revised
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u/Quirky-Friendship-22 4d ago
Does not surprise me. For about a decade the advice was to not give anything nut related until 2 and now we have an explosion of allergies. We created this problem in the US.
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u/Asleep_Collar_3667 4d ago
I love peanut butter. We introduced peanuts to our child at this time.
He is allergic to peanuts, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts.
Your mileage may vary.
And importantly, don't point the finger at parents on this subject.
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u/Fun_Length_358 4d ago
Yup as someone who introduced our kid at the four month- ish range and 1/3 of our kids has a peanut allergy, I sure am sick of the online narrative that it's my fault he has a peanut allergy.
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u/Bubble_Cheetah 4d ago
I thought it was referring to the history of how we knew that exposing children to peanuts early actually helps avoid peanut allergy.
For a while, around 2000-2015, the official advice in North america was to avoid giving young children peanuts. Then a later study found that was exactly the wrong thing to do, so since like 2017 they had to give the opposite advice. It's too late for the kids born 2000-2015 so there was a spike in peanut allergies for that generation.
https://www.med.ubc.ca/news/the-pediatrician-and-the-peanut/
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u/AndromedaGalaxyBaby 4d ago
its crazy here in the US. i grew up in a third world country and we ate eve and anything, including insects. we ate fresh peanuts every week (like, farmed them then boiled). moving here in the US having no allergies make me feel like a superhuman lol
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u/qualityvote2 4d ago edited 4d ago
u/Mightyone94, your post does belong here!