When to introduce Wheat & Dairy? (Family History of Allergies)

[mandymac]

DD has been on solids for nearly 2 months (she's almost 8 months old), we have given her practically all fruit & veg advised for her age, baby rice and now a bit of chicken and have had no problems or reactions to anything so far. Apart from solids, she is still breastfed and had never had any formula or dairy. Because of a family history of Asthma (my sister) and hayfever (me and DH) and IBS (me), I am planning to breastfeed until 12 months minimum. I want to start giving her breakfast, but all the baby cereal needs making up with milk (and my ebm is all going to nursery for her 2 daytime bottles), or contain cows milk already or have wheat in them and I am just a bit wary and confused about what to do for the best.

When should I start introducing Dairy and Wheat? I don't want to be too fussy, but ideally want to avoid doing anything which will increase her risk of allergies.

Thanks in advance

[mandymac]

bump

[mandymac]

bumpedy bump - can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks again

[Nat777]

I dont think I will be of much help, but I will tell you what I know. I saw my HV yesterday and my DD is 6 months today, she told me firmly that there is nothing that she now cant have. I can give her anything that we eat, but of course I will have to watch out for any reactions.

Of course your situation is slightly more complicated due to the asthma, hayfever and IBS so the only thing I can suggest is that you check with your HV.

She was extremly clear yesterday that my DD can now eat all foods. Good luck x

[JennyWren]

Hi Mandymac,
We have also been very cautious about weaning slowly because of my excema, and in fact dd (8 months) already has it herself. We were given a list of things by a specialist hv to avoid until 8 months:
fish
dairy
eggs
nuts (all types, and ground nuts as opposed to 'lumps')
berries
She said that it was fine to introduce wheat from 6 months, but I did delay that until I was confident that she was eating all of her other fruit and veg OK - she was about 7 months when I started wheat, and I started with pasta, then bread, and finally wheatabix. I worked on the theory that pasta was the most 'processed' form of wheat and wheatabix the most raw. So far she has been fine. Before then I gave her baby rice or oaty porridge for breakfast - the Heinz organic porridge has no milk powder in it. I made it up with a little bit of EBM (whatever I could spare), with water added to give the total amount I needed. I just ignored the 'add usual milk' instruction - I decided that she didn't know what it was supposed to taste like, and what you don't know, you don't miss . I always add mashed fruit, which gives it a bit more flavour, and she didn't seem to notice a difference to the overall flavour even on the days that she got all water and no milk!
Dd is 8 months now and I've just started to introduce dairy, and again I started with cheese, then yoghurt/fromage frais; tonight she'll get a cheese sauce (cooked milk) and if all continues to go well she can have some cows milk on her cereal at the weekend. The theory goes that some sensitive babies can tolerate the processed forms better than plain milk.
I've got some chestnut and pumpkin mash left over from a Christmas recipe, so I'll try her on that after the dairy is fully tested, and the same with fish and eggs. Berries I'm not so bothered over because we usually eat them fresh from the garden and we're still a long way off berry season, so she can wait for those - I'd prefer to go really slowly with introducing the potentially problematic things.
Hope that helps a bit.
Jen

[alison222]

my son had excema and i was advised to start carfully with DD when she arrived, however the paediatrician at the hospital advised me that by the time children are 8 or 9 mths old they advise the parents to start intrdcing all foods, albeit slowly one at a time so that if you do get a reaction you know what it was to.

My dad is on a gluten free diet and that means oats, barley rye and wheat. But aparently oats is the least alergenic of them all, so if you haven't already i'd try oats before wheat.
Try ready break made with water - or rice milk, and then add fruit for a bit of flavour.

[Blondeinlondon]

My DS is almost 12 mths and we have avoided gluten so far. He has a tummy bug at the mo but I'm planning on trying wheat/gluten etc once that has passed.

I tried to avoid dairy but he has had gluten free rusks and they do have dairy in them

You can get some baby cereal, there is certainly a hipp one, that you just add water too
Otherwise I tend to give fruit mixed with rice cereal for breakfast

[Squarer]

here you go me dear!

[mandymac]

Thank you all for your helpful replies!

Hi KVG - I find it really hard to keep up on the Junie thread and get embarresed if I can't do a full catch up, still lurking to check how everyone is doing, but busy back at work - hope things are good with you!

Squarer - Email on its way x

[elclose]

Hi
Bought some organic porridge flakes from holland and barret the other day which is wheat and gluten free,
its millet and rice flakes you can make it with water or milk its a little lumpy so i just used hand blender to wizz it down.
Ideal for people with an allergy .

[pookey]

Hi mandymac - sorry to hijack ,

Elclose, reading your suggestion I bought some Millet and rice porridge from sainsburys but noticed it has a thickener glaum gum (or something like that) - is yours the same?. Also how much liquid should I out in?