Introducing gluten to children from four months would limit the risk of developing celiac disease.
- Children who introduced gluten when they were 6 months old have a higher risk of developing celiac disease than those who introduced it after 3 months (1.4%).
- None of the children who introduced gluten from the age of four months developed celiac disease.
Introducing gluten very early in children would allow them to avoid developing celiac disease, that is to say gluten intolerance. This is the result of a study conducted by British scientists and published on September 28 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. Early introduction of high-dose gluten may be an effective disease prevention strategy, although further studies are needed before implementing these recommendations.
Start the diet as soon as possible
The results revealed that children whose gluten was introduced at their sixth month had a higher risk of developing celiac disease than those who had it introduced into their diet after 3 months (+ 1.4%) . Among the 488 children who introduced gluten from the age of four months, there were no cases of celiac disease. For this study, infants who participated received 4 grams of wheat protein per week from their fourth month. In total, 1,004 children were tested. The researchers were interested in anti-transglutanimase antibodies which represent an indicator of celiac disease. They assessed their presence on the third birthday of these children.
This study showed the importance of starting the gluten diet early in infants. “This is the first study to prove that introducing significant amounts of wheat to a baby’s diet early at six months of age can prevent the development of celiac disease.rejoiced Professor Gideon Lack, professor of pediatric allergy at King’s College London and lead author of the study. This strategy may also have implications for other autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes..”
A study with different conclusions
This study contradicts previous research, dated June 2019, which claims that higher gluten intake during childhood is associated with an increased risk of celiac disease. Norwegian researchers have concluded that an above-average gluten intake in children over the age of one doubles the risk of developing gluten intolerance. However, this research is an observational study and other explanations could explain these results.
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