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Peanut allergy can cause shock and death in children. Researchers have discovered there are factors that predispose to this allergy. f all the foods that children and adults can be allergic to, peanuts are arguably the most dangerous. Peanut allergy can be induced by the tiniest amounts - even traces on a knife from making a peanut butter sandwich. And every so often there's a preventable death from the profound shock that can ensue. Some British researchers have been following nearly 14,000 healthy children to work out why some developed peanut allergy in the first place. The factors which were associated with peanut allergy were; drinking soy milk, having had a rash affecting the creases over joints, having a rash which oozed and crusted, and (interestingly) having used skin creams or lotions containing peanut oil in the past. The first two factors - soy and the eczema type rashes - could just have indicated a child who already had allergic tendencies. But the peanut oil in the skin creams may have been more causal, sensitising the child's immune system to peanut, preparing the ground for allergic reactions when peanuts were eaten. All this needs to be confirmed and more work done to see whether these findings can translate into prevention.
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