They gradually introduce these foods later. Maybe too late, if the idea of early exposure is accurate, but it's very much a case of "can't be too safe" when I asked them.

Perhaps so, but I had a mother who was particularly fussy that we kids had good fresh food—I reckon she was a bit obsessed with it, yummy things like potato chips, sweets, etc. were discouraged and not a part of our normal diet—and at no time was anything ever mentioned about nuts, peanut butter, etc. being bad or 'suspect'.

In fact, I was encouraged to eat nuts instead of sweets as they were considered wholesome whereas sweets were not. We always had peanut butter at home (mother encouraged it over jam).

When we did have sweets it was often peanut brittle (and peanut toffee) which I and most kids loved.

Moreover, my mother always thought of herself as up to date, every week she read women's magazines such as the Women's Weekly, if nut allergies were a big deal back then she would have heard of it. But there was nothing said.

Likewise, I'd love to know the statistics. What I do know is that these days something has changed for the worse. If peanut allergies had been so prevalent when I was a kid then there'd have been no way that it could have been covered up so completely that no one would have been aware of it.

Incidentally, it's not as if allergies were unknown back then, we occasionally heard of some unfortunate people who were allergic to shellfish, or occasionally egg, or being near cats or horses—but never peanuts or other nuts.