Allergy experts urge parents to expose babies to risky foods

NEW infant feeding guidelines are urging mothers to expose their babies to foods that can cause allergic reactions to help avoid lifelong risks.

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NEW infant feeding guidelines are urging mothers to expose their babies to foods that can cause allergic reactions to help avoid lifelong risks.

With allergic diseases becoming twice as common in the past decade, the peak body of allergy experts is warning the delayed introduction of risky foods has failed as a prevention strategy.

Instead, the Australian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy recommends feeding babies peanuts and egg among other foods in the first months of life.

ASCIA paediatric committee chair Prof Dianne Campbell also warns there is no convincing evidence hypo-allergenic baby formulas have any impact in preventing a child developing an allergy.

The latest guidelines recommend infants at high risk of allergies be introduced to peanuts within their first 12 months, and have cooked egg included in their diets in their first eight months.

“The previous advice and practice of delaying eggs, peanuts, wheat, fish until two and three years of age has almost certainly contributed that increasing rate of allergic disease,” Prof Campbell said.

www.allergy.org.au

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