Children with allergies were given microdoses of peanuts - and the result surprised scientists
Researchers from Karolinska Institutet have shown that controlled administration of very small doses of peanuts can help children with allergies to tolerate the product better. The study involved 1-3 year old children with a confirmed peanut allergy, and the treatment was carried out according to a medical protocol and under the supervision of specialists.
Important: this is not a home experiment or advice to give peanuts to a child with allergies on your own. Some children have had serious reactions during treatment, so this approach is only possible in contact with doctors.
Details
The study involved 75 children 1-3 years old from Stockholm with confirmed peanut allergy. 50 children received oral immunotherapy: they were given peanut snacks in very small doses, gradually increasing the amount. Another 25 children were in the control group and avoided peanuts completely.
Treatment was started at the hospital with a very low dose. The families then continued the daily intake at home, but under medical supervision. Every 4-6 weeks the dose was increased until the children reached a maintenance dose equivalent to about one and a half peanuts a day.
After three years, the results were noticeable: 82 per cent of the children in the treatment group could eat at least 3.5 peanuts without an allergic reaction, even after a four-week break in therapy. In the control group, only 12% of the children showed this level of tolerance.
According to the researchers, all of the children who followed the protocol met the goal of being able to eat 3.5 peanuts without a reaction, and most tolerated up to 25 peanuts.
There were side effects, but more often mild: itchy mouth or skin rash. More serious reactions mostly occurred during the dose escalation stages; a few children required an adrenaline injection.
Why it matters
Peanut allergy often persists for a long time and can have a major impact on family life: parents have to constantly monitor the composition of foods and fear accidental contact with the allergen.
Oral immunotherapy does not mean that the allergy has been "cured" completely. It aims to raise the threshold of reaction so that accidental consumption of small amounts of peanuts is less dangerous. This may reduce family anxiety and the risk of severe reactions from unintentional exposure.
But the main conclusion remains medical: the approach should only be conducted under controlled conditions. The authors explicitly warn that parents should not try to replicate such a scheme at home, because serious reactions are still possible.
Background
Oral immunotherapy for food allergies is based on gradually "conditioning" the immune system to the allergen. The child is given very small doses of the product, then the dose is carefully increased. In an earlier interim analysis of the same line of research, children 1-3 years old were given a slowly increasing dose and a low maintenance dose; after one year of therapy, peanut protein tolerance was significantly higher than in the avoidance group.
The new work is important because it shows the result after a longer period - three years of treatment. The researchers' next step is to study how the immune system changes during therapy and whether tolerance is maintained in the longer term.
Source
The study Safety and effectiveness of peanut oral immunotherapy in preschool children with slow up-dosing and low maintenance dosing: a randomised controlled trial is published in The Lancet Regional Health - Europe in 2026.