Greater peanut avoidance found in siblings of children with peanut allergy

A new study involving several AllerGen researchers has found that more than 10% of siblings of children with peanut allergies have never been introduced to peanuts, and siblings born after the diagnosis of a peanut allergic child are more likely to have never been exposed.

The paper, “Peanut avoidance and peanut allergy diagnosis in siblings of peanut allergic children,” used data from 748 families registered with the Canadian Peanut Allergy Registry. It also found that almost 9% of siblings were reported as peanut allergic, though in nearly 50% of cases, the diagnosis was made without having a history of an allergic reaction or undergoing confirmatory testing.

The study, published online in Clinical & Experimental Allergy, is featured in Wiley’s News Round-Up, a biweekly mailing that promotes a selection of the most newsworthy research published across Wiley’s journals.

The study involved the work of AllerGen researchers Drs Ann Clarke (University of Calgary), Edmond Chan (The University of British Columbia), Yuka Asai and Moshe Ben-Shoshan (McGill University); allergy specialists from McGill University and Humber River Regional Hospital; and AllerGen partners Anaphylaxis Canada and Allergy/Asthma Information Association.

“This is the largest group of siblings assessed in the medical literature so far,” says Dr. Moshe Ben-Shoshan, a pediatric allergist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital. “Our study reveals that a substantial number of siblings born after a child in the family is diagnosed with a peanut allergy are not introduced to peanut by the ages of 3 and 5 years, and may even be presumed to have peanut allergy without a history of an allergic reaction or clinical testing. These findings are especially concerning given that recent studies suggest that delayed exposure may be associated with increased risk of peanut allergy.”