None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
In Australia cashew nut allergy is the most common of the tree nut allergies in adolescents. The 2016 revised Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) infant feeding and allergy prevention guidelines recommend: all infants should be given allergenic foods including peanut butter, cooked egg, dairy and wheat in the first year of life. However there is no specific mention of tree nut foods, like cashew nut spread. This is because we still need to establish evidence of the effect of regularly eating tree nuts or tree nut spreads in early childhood as a tree nut allergy prevention strategy. Cashew nut spreads are now readily available in supermarkets. With the texture of a paste like peanut butter, they could feasibly be introduced into the diets of infants once they have established the developmental readiness for eating solid foods. We propose to investigate two different doses of cashew nut spread regularly eaten by infants from 6 months of age onwards. This study will enable us to examine whether babies regularly eating cashew nut spread should be further investigated as a cashew nut allergy prevention strategy in a larger multi-centre randomised controlled trial. This evidence will contribute towards providing specific recommendations to also include tree nut spreads introduction during infancy in allergy prevention guidelines.
Interventions
Arm 1: The families will be provided with the updated 2016 ASCIA infant feeding and allergy prevention guidelines (www.allergy.org.au). In addition, the families will be advised to orally give their infant 1 teaspoon of cashew nut spread (100% cashew nuts) mixed with their solid foods three times per week from 6-8 until 12 months of age . Families will be provided with jars of the cashew nut spread to use..
Arm 2: The families will be provided with the updated 2016 ASCIA infant feeding and aller
Arm 1: The families will be provided with the updated 2016 ASCIA infant feeding and allergy prevention guidelines (www.allergy.org.au). In addition, the families will be advised to orally give their infant 1 teaspoon of cashew nut spread (100% cashew nuts) mixed with their solid foods three times per week from 6-8 until 12 months of age . Families will be provided with jars of the cashew nut spread to use.. Arm 2: The families will be provided with the updated 2016 ASCIA infant feeding and allergy prevention guidelines. In addition, the families will be advised to orally give their infant increasing amounts of the cashew nut spread (100% cashew nuts) mixed with their solid foods three times per week. The increasing dosage regime will be 1 teaspoon from 6-7 months, 2 teaspoons from 8-9 months and 3 teaspoons from 10 months of age with the intervention period of from 6-8 until 12 months of age . If a participant commences at 8 months of age the starting dose will be 2 teaspoons. Families will be provided with jars of the cashew nut spread to use. Compliance: All arm 1 and arm 2 participating families will be contacted monthly via a 10 minute telephone call and asked about how much of the Cashew Nut spread their infant had eaten over the preceding week.
Sponsors
Dr Debra Palmer
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Prevention
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
6 Months to 8 Months
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Eligible participants will be infants who are born greater than or equal to 37 weeks gestation.
Exclusion criteria
Infants with a feeding difficulty that are unable to eat solid foods prior to 8 months of age.
Outcome results
None listed