Study: Peanut Intake As An Infant Prevents Peanut Allergies

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Researchers in London are taking steps forward in figuring out ways to prevent peanut allergies in high risk children.

Peanut allergies have increased in the U.S. and the U.K. in recent decades. It's an allergy that is rarely outgrown and cannot be cured.

One of the children tested was 8-year old Andreas Angelopoulos. He can eat anything he likes but as a baby a skin condition put him at high risk of developing a peanut allergy.

"Knowing that with eczema he might have lots of allergies, yeah - we were worried," said Tara Orlanes-Angelopoulou, Andreas' mother

So when Andreas was just a newborn, he took part in a landmark study in London with about 600 other children.

"I had to eat these different things with peanuts," said Andreas.

Andreas ate a peanut mixture several times a week for the first five years of his life.

Findings published last year showed introducing peanuts to infants at high risk for allergies protected them from peanut allergy - in up to 80 percent of cases.

Researchers also wanted to know if children would need to keep eating peanuts to get the same results.

"We took all these children and we asked them to completely stop eating peanuts for a 12-month period," said Dr. Gideon Lack, the professor of pediatric allergy at Kings College London.

Doctors found children who avoided peanuts for the year were still protected.

"It would appear early consumption of peanuts gives you long lasting protection against peanut allergy," said Dr. Lack.

Now that Andreas can make his own choices, there's really only one thing he craves –pizza.