For the past few years, parents have struggled to keep their young children away from potential allergens. Mainstream thought said that the younger you expose a child to things like peanuts, the greater their risk of developing dangerous allergies. With all of the buzz on peanut allergies causing death, more and more parents have been terrified to let their child play in the same room where a peanut butter sandwich has been prepared!

Now, new studies are finding it is very possible that the precautions parents have been taking to avoid allergies might be the very reason that allergies in children are on the rise in the U.S. The most recent theory is that early exposure to things that cause allergies might help children's developing immune systems to understand the difference between something that is truly bad for you like germs and something that shouldn't be a danger, such as pet hair. This is similar to the principles used in immunization.

"What we've learned is that it may, in fact, be important to be exposed early on to a sufficient quantity of allergy-causing substances to train the immune system that they are not a threat," says Andy Saxon of the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA). "And, in people who already have allergies, we see for the first time where the problems lie, and we have new opportunities to tweak the system."

Tests are now being done to determine whether or not exposing infants to peanuts can lower the risk of peanut allergies later. This is an important study, because every year in the U.S. 15,000 people suffer from a severe allergy attack brought on by exposure to peanuts - and 100 of those people actually die. While the testing is in its early stages, scientists don't recommend giving your baby peanuts at home to test the theory. The tests they are conducting are obviously being done in controlled environments, and as a result none of the children tested are in danger.