For years, many parents were told to keep eggs, peanuts and other allergy-triggering foods away from babies until toddlerhood. The logic sounded safe, avoid the food, avoid the allergy.

A new study suggests that advice may have been exactly the wrong direction.

Research published in JAMA Pediatrics found that after infant-feeding guidance changed to encourage earlier egg introduction, the prevalence of egg allergy among 1-year-old children fell by more than 17%. The absolute drop was from 9.2% to 7.6%, but the sharper story was among babies with early eczema, one of the strongest warning signs for future food allergy. In that group, egg allergy fell from 34.6% to 21.9%.

The study, led by researchers in Australia, compared two large groups of infants in Melbourne, one before the guideline shift and one after. The children were tested at around 12 months of age using allergy skin testing, and those with positive results underwent oral food challenges, the standard method used to confirm whether a child is truly allergic.

Earlier guidance had leaned heavily toward avoidance, especially for high-risk children. But over the past decade, allergy prevention has moved toward early, regular exposure in safe, age-appropriate forms. The idea is simple but powerful, when a baby’s immune system meets a food through the mouth early in life, it may be more likely to learn tolerance rather than treat that food as a threat.

This does not mean giving babies unsafe foods or rushing solids too early. Doctors generally advise introducing solids when a baby is developmentally ready, usually around 6 months and not before 4 months. Egg should be well cooked. Peanut should be given in safe forms such as thinned smooth peanut butter or peanut powder mixed into other foods, never whole nuts, which are a choking hazard.