The Allergists Speak: Primary Prevention of Food Allergy Through Nutrition

The three largest societies of Allergy & Immunology in the United States and Canada got together recently to make a joint statement on how food, and how babies eat, could prevent food allergies. 

Joint recommendations like this are a big deal because thousands of doctors have to sign-on to the statement for it to get published. It takes a lot of clinical data and a lot of discussion before recommendations are made. 

What did they say?

Recommendation 1: Infants with severe eczema are at the highest risk of developing food allergies. 

  • Family history, mild eczema, and even a known food allergy are less likely to cause a new food allergy.

Recommendation 2: Every baby should begin eating infant-safe peanuts (powdered) as soon as they start solid foods by 6 months, but not before 4 months. 

  • There is no need for testing, just dive in at home.
  • Keep exposure consistent through the 1st birthday.

Recommendation 3: Every baby should begin eating infant-safe, well-cooked eggs (powdered) as soon as they start solid foods by 6 months, but not before 4 months. 

Recommendation 4: Do not delay feeding soy, wheat, tree nuts, sesame, fish, shellfish, milk, and other possibly allergenic foods.

Recommendation 5: Make a baby’s diet as diverse as possible.

Recommendation 6: Do not use hypoallergenic formulas as a way to prevent food allergies.

  • Hypoallergenic formula can still be very important for children with a milk allergy.

Recommendation 7: Do not avoid foods in pregnancy as a way to prevent food allergy.

At Lil Mixins, we make the regular addition of peanuts, tree nuts, and eggs to the infant diet incredibly easy. This helps with exposure to potentially allergenic foods as well as diet diversity. Mix it up!