History of allergies - should I delay some foods beyond 6 months?

[fadingfast]

I am in the process of weaning my 7mo DD. We are in week four and so far I have given only simple fruit/veg purees and rice. I feel that I should start to give her more complex foods but I don't know if I should delay the introduction of foods with a high risk of allergy (ie dairy, wheat, fish etc). I have a 4yo DS with a nut allergy, although no other food allergies in the family that we are aware of (DH is atopic though). I have the Suzannah Olivier book which is super cautious about introducing any foods which are even slightly risky (even plain old potato, which is apparently in the deadly nightshade family!). I am so confused and feel that things are not progressing quickly enough.

Should I just try all these foods now and check for a reaction or play it safe and delay introducing them? If so, how long do I delay them for?

Was going to rush in with reassuring anecdotes about weaning dd when I noticed that your ds has an allergy, so maybe you'll need to be more careful than I was.
Fer what it's worth, I seem to have given dd every 'forbidden' food and she was absolutely fine. Every time I found something she liked (eggs, bread sticks, tinned sardines, etc) someone would tell me a week later that she should not have been exposed to such a dangerous substance for many months yet.
(The most interesting nappies definitely result from beetroot.)

My DS1 (age 5) has a serious dairy allergy so we were quite careful with weaning DS2 (now 15 months) and followed our allergy specialist's advice (obviously the problem is that every specialist seems to have a different opinion!).

We delayed wheat until 8 months, and eggs/fish/dairy until a year. Because of our history with dairy we tried that extremely gradually and in fact have now stopped it as he has eczema - probably not caused by the dairy but are waiting for it to clear until we try again. I probably won't try peanuts until he's about 3, although he has had some walnuts in the last month or two I think.

Personally I certainly wouldn't worry about potatoes (!) and I would get on with giving meat and chicken without any problem.

Are you still breastfeeding or giving formula? A vital question as formula fed babies "need" solids more than breastfed. Formula not a good source of omega 3&6, and the iron is not easily as absorbed.

I've got a DD with an egg allergy and the whole family is very allergic and I'm pregnant with no.2 so have thought how I would wean differently.

Giving a new food one at a time for 2-3 days is generally a good method. You do need to introduce protein and fats by now. Every specialist will give you advice. The Suzannah Oliver book is very cautious and I'm sure it would work if you followed it to the letter - added stuff to formula if you are feeding that way etc...

Hi, new to MN here. I was at an anaphylaxis seminar in Dublin on Saturday and the specialist spoke about new research indicating that delaying weaning/ avoiding nuts in pregnancy seems to make no difference to allergy stats. He did suggest that continuing breastfeeding whilst introducing foods earlier may have some impact. However, if I was doing it all again, I think I might still be afraid to chance certain things but it's worth thinking about.