Children are facing more life-threatening allergic reactions to peanuts at much earlier ages than a decade ago, a U.S. report revealed Monday.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center determined the median age of peanut-allergic patients between July 2000 and April 2006. According to the new findings, the median ages were much lower than in a similar study of patients from 1995 to 1997.

The study published in the journal Pediatrics discovered that children born during of after 2000 were exposed to peanuts at 12 months of age and reported their first adverse reactions at 14 months. Things are different with children born between 1995 and 1997. Those children did not eat food-containing peanuts until 22 months and did not show their first adverse reactions until at 24 months.

"The results of our study may suggest that American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines endorsing the delayed introduction of peanuts until age 3 for children with a strong family history of allergies are not being followed widely in the United States. At the same time, the prevalence of peanut allergy among children has reportedly doubled nationwide over the last decade. This could be due both to a higher rate of peanut allergy and to more public awareness and recognition on the part of the medical community," lead author Todd Green, professor of pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, said in a statement.

Allergies are very hard to control, especially when children do not know how to express what exactly they feel.

"When kids are older, it can be easier to manage bad reactions. They can tell you right away if their mouths feel funny. For that reason alone, it's worth delaying exposing your child to a peanut product, especially if a child is at high risk," said Green.

He also recommended parents to not give peanuts to children until they are three year old if there is a strong history of allergies in the family.

According to the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network, a health advocacy organization based in Fairfax, Va., about 200 people die every year in the United States because allergic reactions at something they ate and almost a third of the U.S.’s people, (meaning 1.8 million Americans) with peanut allergies have reactions severe enough to kill them.

The new findings are the latest wrinkle in a world where food allergies among children are so much more prevalent that some school across the country decided to forbid consumption of peanut products.