How do you introduce allergenic foods to your baby?
Once your little one turns 6 months old, it’s time to start introducing them to solids. It is also at this time that you should consider introducing allergenic foods to them.
Allergenic foods are foods that can potentially cause allergic reactions. The most common ones include dairy, soy, eggs, wheat, fish, seafood, sesame, and nuts like peanuts and almonds. Babies respond best to allergenic foods when you introduce them after 4 months and before they turn 12 months old.
When should you introduce allergenic foods?
According to pediatricians, the best time to introduce allergenic foods is when your little one is 6 months old. You do not want to wait too long until your baby is over 12 months old or do it too early before your baby turns 4 months old. Doing so increases the risk of your baby developing allergic reactions to those foods.
You want to start slowly with soft foods that your baby might like, such as smooth peanut butter or boiled eggs. Then work towards introducing textures over the next weeks.
Only introduce allergenic foods during daytime feedings. This way, you will quickly notice any allergic reactions and respond appropriately. If your baby is allergic to a certain food, they will typically start reacting very quickly. You will notice changes within a few minutes to less than half an hour after introducing the food.
That said, some babies take longer for the reactions to appear, sometimes up to 24 hours later. For this reason, you want to introduce one allergenic food a day to start. The good news is that the longer an allergic reaction takes to show, the milder it will be!
Simple ways to introduce allergenic foods to your baby
- Start slow. Start with one allergenic food at a time. This will make it easier to identify what food is causing which reaction. When starting, mix a tiny portion of the food into your baby’s regular food, like a quarter a teaspoon of peanut butter in their favorite puree.
- Gradually increase your baby’s intake over time. Once you establish that your little one is not allergic to a particular food, keep including it in their diet to help them develop an even higher tolerance to it. Then try a new allergenic food every two days while making each greenlit food a regular part of your child’s diet.
- Keep offering the allergenic food several times a week over several months. Sustained exposure to allergenic foods like this has been shown to help reduce the risk of developing allergic reactions to that particular food. Therefore, unless your baby has an immediate allergic reaction to a particular food, make it a regular part of their diet.
- When in doubt, test out the food first by rubbing a little bit of it inside your baby’s lip. Give it a few minutes and check the area to see if there is any reaction. Do not rub it on your baby’s skin as this is not an accurate indicator of an allergic reaction.
- Finally, don’t stop breastfeeding your baby! Breastfeeding can help reduce the risk of allergies significantly, so don’t stop it while weaning your little one!
Final Thoughts
If your baby is allergic to a certain food, you will usually notice the first symptoms within about 30 minutes. Common symptoms include red bumps on the skin, a red rash around the mouth where the food touched the skin, slight swelling of the lips, eyelids, or face, tingling in the mouth, vomiting, constipation, and gassiness or tummy pain. If you notice any of these symptoms, avoid offering the food that caused it and reach out to your pediatrician for a full diagnosis.
Serious allergic reactions include swelling of the tongue, hoarse voice, difficulty breathing, tightness of the throat, coughing or wheezing, and collapsing or going floppy. If you notice any of these reactions, it is a medical emergency and you need to rush your little one to the hospital right away.
