New York – Surprising new results on the prevalence of food allergies in children suggest that introducing highly allergenic foods to babies at a young age may play a role in preventing allergies in children as they get older.
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According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, a January article in a clinical journal of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology recommends introducing highly allergenic foods including peanuts, shellfish and eggs to babies as young as four to six months of age after the typical “first foods” such as rice cereal, fruits and vegetables have been eaten and tolerated, in stark contrast to earlier recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics suggesting that these foods be introduced at a much later date.
A Journal of Allergy Clinical Immunology article reported that the rate of children with peanut allergies in the United Kingdom was ten times greater than that of Israeli children. The 2008 study, which compared 5,000 children in the United Kingdom with an equal number of their Israeli counterparts, led to a follow up study of approximately one hundred infants in each country and found that while Israeli babies typically ate Bamba peanut snacks before the age of six months, babies in the United Kingdom had no exposure to peanut products until after their first birthday.
“The body has to be trained in the first year of life. We think there’s a critical window probably around four to six months, when the child first starts to eat solids,” explained Katie Allen, a professor and allergist at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute at Royal Children’s Hospital in Australia.
Exposing babies to certain foods in their first months may help prevent their immune systems from treating them as foreign substances and reacting adversely when they are introduced at a later age.
“There’s been more studies that find that if you introduce them early you may actually prevent food allergy,” said Denver pediatric allergist David Fleisicher. “We need to get the message out now to pediatricians, primary care physicians and specialists that these allergenic foods can be introduced early.”
Other experts were critical of the findings and suggested that further research is needed.
“The evidence that has come up is of great interest but it’s all either anecdotal or epidemiological,” said Dr. Robert Wood, director of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who suggested that parents not feel the need to introduce the foods in question in their child’s first few months.
“You can do whatever you want because we’re not sure what makes a difference,” added Dr. Wood.
.so moms and dads to be ..how are you gonna paskin. A.A.of A.A.and I. or A.A.of P
or maybe ask grandma.
My bubi Z`L said they were lucky if they had something to eat
“……found that while Israeli babies typically ate Bamba peanut snacks before the age of six months, babies in the United Kingdom had no exposure to peanut products until after their first birthday.”
Are you kidding me? Little babies are eating Bamba? Does this strike anyone else as weird/strange?
(Reply to #5 ):
Sadly, there is so much ignorance out there. There seems to be a reluctance and even a real unwillingness among the Lakewood and yeshiva crowd to educate ourselves and our families about health and nutrition, even as it pertains to our infants! What are we teaching our children about which foods and snacks are healthy and beneficial to them?
About how one’s diet can, over time, contribute to clogged arteries and disease? French fries for infants? Really?
Do these parents not read labels? Do they know anything about transfats, salt, excess sugar and its harmful effects? Do Lakewood people understand the benefits of feeding children fresh, natural foods instead of processed foods? I guess these folks aren’t watching Dr. Oz, but still……
The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend restricting any foods because of allergy concerns after 4-6 months (the article incorrectly says “a much later date”). There was a study which showed that there might be an increased incidence of milk allergy if unhydrolyzed cow’s milk was given prior to that age.
But everything we know about immunology tells us that the earlier the body is exposed to something, the less likely it is to mount an immune response to it, allergic or otherwise. If you expose the immune system to something earlier in its development, it learns to accept it as something that belongs in the body, not something foreign.
We should also feed our children Torah at an early age, so they won’t be ‘allergic’ to it when they grow.
The prenatal diet has as much to do with allergen tolerances as does the timing of their dietary introduction to children.