Credit: Sue Davis. CC by-nc-sa/2.0/
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Children who are allergic to peanuts are far more likely to be exposed to them in their own homes that at school, says University of Montreal’s Sabrine Cherkaoui. Cherkaoui and her colleagues at McGill University came to the discovery after reviewing the circumstances surrounding 567 incidents of accidental peanut exposure to allergic children. “Our study looked at 1,941 children who had been diagnosed as being allergic to peanuts to determine how exposure occurs, how serious the outcomes of the exposure are, and what treatment is given,” explained Cherkaoui, who was first author of the study. “We discovered that children are most at risk of exposure in their own homes. Furthermore, when children do have a moderate or severe reaction to an exposure, parents and medical professionals often do not know how to react appropriately.”