Emergency Medical Minute

Contributor: Aaron Lessen, MD Educational Pearls: Recent study evaluated if early exposure to an allergen impacted the rate of allergy development later in childhood Children were exposed to peanut, milk, wheat, and egg allergens at 3 months of age and then followed for 3 years 2.5-3% of children who were not exposed developed allergies to these allergens 1% of children exposed to the allergens developed allergies to these allerrgens Exposing 63 children to allergens at 3 months would prevent the development of food allergy in one child with no significant adverse events Future recommendations will likely be to gradually introduce allergens to children starting around 3 months References Skjerven HO, Lie A, Vettukattil R, et al. Early food intervention and skin emollients to prevent food allergy in young children (PreventADALL): a factorial, multicentre, cluster-randomised trial. Lancet. Jun 25 2022;399(10344):2398-2411. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(22)00687-0   Summarized by Mark O’Brien, MS4 | Edited by John Sp