A new study at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego may change the future of peanut allergies for kids.
The study will give participants a skin patch with tiny amounts of peanut in the hopes of desensitizing children who are allergic to peanuts.
The hospital has seen nearly 3,000 children with peanut allergies. The only way to manage the allergy is simply to avoid it, or treat accidental ingestion.
"The new patch therapy could prove to be a breakthrough for the peanut allergy sufferers,” said Stephanie Leonard, director of the Food Allergy Center at Rady Children’s Hospital in a statement.
About 3 million people in the U.S. suffer from the allergy and only 20 percent of children grow out of the allergy, according to the hospital.
To participate, patients must be healthy and at least six years old, have eaten peanuts and had a reaction, and currently following a strictly peanut-free diet.
Here is more information on the study.
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