About once a month I shock a friend or acquaintance by admitting to her I started giving both my kids peanut butter (aka my favorite food) at 12 months. Now it seems my lazy parenting may turn out to be smart mothering. According to this NY Times article, emerging evidence seems to show that delayed exposure increases the risk of allergies.
What I don't get is why this is surprising. Doctors have known for some time that farm kids and children who are born into a household with 2+ cats have lower rates of allergies because their immune systems were challenged from a young age. Are food allergies so different that the same theory wouldn't apply?
