To feel vindicated regarding recent news articles concerning early introduction of allergens

[Wafflington]

Several news articles recently have highlighted data from studies pointing out that early introduction of allergens (eg peanuts) from 4-6months of age significantly reduces formation of allergies

It feels like a relief somehow. I have a background in immunology and have been aware of these studies for a long time out of personal interest. However I have, countless times, been absolutely ripped to shreds by other mums on social media/forums/etc for daring to suggest that early introduction of allergens reduces the risk of allergies. Literally been called all sorts of horrible names by people who insist you absolutely cannot EVER give ANY kind of solids before 6 months, and absolutely never give any allergens like peanuts before at least 12 months. That if you dare to do this or suggest it, you're a shit mum and should rot in hell and all your children will grow up allergic to everything under the sun

Feels somewhat vindicated now to see news reports on the TV agreeing with me I suppose

Not really sure why I'm posting this to be honest, other than I hope NHS guidelines consider the latest data and make any necessary changes to recommendations on infant feeding 🤷‍♀️

I thought it was pretty well known that babies with high potential for allergies should be tried on those allergens pre-6 months.

there is also a raft of info about why it’s better to wait for the gut / digestion to wait until 6 mknths

what I don’t understand though - is why people are in such a rush to start their baby on solids. It’s always said with a touch of feeling that their baby is so advanced somehow that they had to get started early. In reality, babies put everything in their mouth but it takes them a while to figure out how to swallow. So it’s not really an indication of being ready for solids by them taking it from your plate and a few spoons of parsnip doesn’t have anything like the same calories as milk.

there seems to be a weird competitive vibe from people who weaned early and I’m not sure why. Weaning is pretty boring and takes a while until theyre actually taking in good amounts!

Sounds like a really positive step though. Maybe it will eventually lead to more advice for pregnant women where family history indicates allergies are more likely, that could minimise the risks for the baby.
All the time I spent to make sure I was following advice to the letter, eating organics, taking probiotics, blah blah and DS became an advert for ignoring it all.😂

YANBU. Its been known for years that its best to start solids between 4 and 6 months, and allergens in particular should be started before 6 months, I don't know why the NHS hasn't updated their guidelines. Annoys me too when people say nonsense like "food before one is just for fun" - it really isn't, especially with breastfed babies!

Luckily I'm not in the UK any more and my country is more up to date on such things and I was told by the child health nurses to introduce allergens, especially nuts, to my DS once he turned 4 months as his dad is allergic to nuts so it was the best way to reduce the risk of him being allergic (and so far, at 5 years old, he isn't)

I would have been too terrified to give some peanut butter directly to my DC at 4 months as they were already very unwell with signs of atopy/allergy from 2-3 months (raw skin, very little sleep, never more than 2 hours at a time, vomiting lots after every feed, lots of screaming most of the time). Is it possible to develop allergies even earlier?

You can only develop an allergy to something you've been exposed to so if breastfeeding then potentially yes but if formula feeding no (except for dairy, obviously)

Skin testing for food allergies is pretty unreliable. Excluding from the diet is the only way to tell really.

I had read this before and gave my son peanut butter regularly from 6 months for this reason. Unfortunately he still developed a peanut allergy at age 1 so it's not going to stop everything, but who knows, maybe his allergy would have been worse if he hadn't had earlier exposure. He has a few other allergies too but they happened the first time he tried the foods when weaning.

Thanks for posting this.

I really wish the government would treat nut allergy especially as an important problem to solve. Nuts are such a healthy food to give to children and so many children are missing out on eating much of them. Especially those children who have all three meals in a school setting (wrap around care), where meals tend to be white carb high and nutrient low.

Starting at 6 months is late though, perhaps if you had started before 6 months he might not have developed the allergy, though of course its not a guarantee o matter when you start

Maybe not, but there's enough for us to feel guilty about in life without beating ourselves up about something we tried our best for hey? Thanks for pointing that out though!

@SnackSizeRaisin really? I didn't know that (apart from grains/gluten which I knew were diagnosed tgrough exclusion). All his positives were accurate (found through recording symptoms after tiny amounts ingested) but we suspect a few false negatives happened as reactions would happen at random.

That's tough with a baby isn't it, as they haven't had anything! Apart from everything the mum is eating if she is breastfeeding. Weaning was frankly a fucking nightmare. I guess we were doing the opposite of exclusion - we had to give one food only for 5 days and record any symptoms, then do another for 5 days and so on. It took months for us to introduce an intetesting variation because every single different food took 5 days, on its own.

That was 10 years ago though so hopefully things have moved on even in that time for babies with allergies and weaning advice.

If you were hanging out on American sites the weaning advice there is very prescriptive in comparison to most countries so I can see how they might have found 'introduce common allergens early' challenging. The advice in the UK was never to wait till 12 months for introducing common allergens.

D1 is 15 and when I was pregnant with her I did a lot of reading around the evidence that suppported the advice on what foods to avoid in pregnancy (I have a PhD in Immunology). At the time the official advice was to avoid nuts when pregnant and BFing but it wasn't hard to find pepers suggesting otherwise and it made it into mainstream media not long after.

It's been well known that the wean at 6 months advice is to try and stop mothers introducing food before 16 weeks, because of the 'my child is so advanced he started weaning at 4 weeks old' kind of attitudes. I'm fairly relaxed about the government advice, 6 months is still in the 4-6 months period. I hope it changes attitudes about nuts in nurseries though. DS had a CMPA but nursery refused to offer him peanut butter sandwiches when the other children got cheese because another mother didn't want her child exposed to peanuts yet - no actually allergy. So my child with an actually allergy was considered less important than her paranoia. I was not happy.

Would you be able to signpost me to these studies please? Weirdly enough I've been looking all morning for any studies on why its advised to wait until 6 months to wean and I'm really struggling to find anything! My baby's 5 months and is definitely ready to start solids but I'm just too scared to go against NHS advice

Is there a good evidence based, well referenced resource for baby stuff out there? We're contemplating our first and I know I will feel the need to research everything BUT I no longer have my academic log ins to get behind paywalls.

WHO guidance is babies should be having 200 calories from food at 6 months. How can you do that if you’re only just starting them off yet. Food under one is just for fun it bollox.
I always split the difference and went for 5 months for weaning. I also do purées and baby led to cover the bases.
Advice even for adult health seems to change a lot, I’m happy to crack on with my instincts.

Fortunately I tend to take these kinds of strict guidelines with a pinch of salt on the basis that any hard and fast rules are generally dumbed down to (and by...) the lowest common denominator.

My now 4 year old started weaning (puree and baby-led combo) as a ravenpus 4 month-old and I have a video of him tasting proper food for the first time giggling madly and straining for the spoon. Also introduced peanut butter somewhere around that time (hovering over my PFB with baby antihistamine!)

My son ate fish from when he was weaned, then around 6 he started showing signs of anaphylaxis. So we avoided fish until he tried some out of curiosity when he was 15, and he ended up in hospital

I'm not so sure. I'm the same age as you and there was always advice about not giving children nuts 'as they could choke and die ' when in fact it wasn't choking but anaphylactic shock. Nuts weren't used in everything like they are now and it was quite usual not to come into contact with nuts apart from at Christmas.

When was it NHS guidance to avoid allergens till 12 months? I was never advised that.

In Switzerland where I live they come down pretty hard at the 4-month check up on starting purées asap. They’re obsessed with vegetable and fruit purées

They had been given a spoonful each when I walked into the kitchen and saw what he was doing. When he'd managed to remove the phone from my hand as it became apparent 999 wasn't needed I confiscated the jar. I'm afraid I'm not in a position to disclose what may or may not have happened to it 😊

That research has been published for ages and hit the headline yonks ago. Unfortunately some people refuse to acknowledge what actual evidence shows. I follow Dr Amy Brown (who’s work I generally respect) on FB and asked the other day after she’d shared yet another post ridiculing weaning before 6 months and asked her opioid on this. Radio silence on it. Probably because it puts a lot of what’s in her book out of date! It’s more like a religion to some people. The whole BLW and food before one being for fun malarkey.

I introduced all allergens around 6 months in a trial basis and my DD still has tons of allergies sadly 😖

Can I also ask your opinion on allergens going through breastmilk? Because I thought the most recent, largest and best studies basically show that it’s not really possible to be reaction inducing. Yet every other breastfed baby seems to be diagnosed with CMPA and if you question it people look at you like you have 2 heads. I used to peer support and I can honestly say that every other mum coming through our doors was following a dairy free diet. I know the background is that formula industry has pushed the diagnosis of CMPA but why isn’t the NHS actually following the science?

Yet every other breastfed baby seems to be diagnosed with CMPA

Really? I've known a lot of women breastfeeding and only two have ever had a CMPA diagnosis.