Terrified of allergies...am I the only one?

[MamaPenelope]

Hey Guys,

I'm pretty new to this so you will have to forgive me. I love feeding my little one new foods, but after watching This Morning where a mother was saying how her little one died after anaphylactic shock, I'm terrified to not stick to basics! What do you guys do? Do i risk not feeding my girl interesting foods to save her from the risk of an allergic reaction?

Penny

Allergies are very, very rare. I don't know how young your child is but it's best to introduce as broad a range of new foods as possible so that they develop a good palate. Obviously keep an eye out for reactions but don't let that restrict your choices.

My dd is severely allergic to peanuts and has also had adverse reactions to tomatoes, pineapple, broad beans and melon. It has virtually always been blindingly obvious when she is having a reaction to something - hives, swelling and rash have appeared almost instantaneously. This means it is easy to respond appropriately, usually with piriton. Also, she'll take a bite of something, then will refuse to eat any more of the thing that is causing the reaction, I guess because it hurts her mouth. This was true even when she was tiny. It means she is unlikely to eat anything in big enough quantities to do her terrible harm. We have lots and lots of family history of allergy. Unless you do too, I wouldn't be too worried about exposing your dc to lots of different food.

I feed our one everything that we eat.

Try one new food a week so you can assess any alterations in behaviour etc.

Try introducing one new ingredient at a time. give some time for allergy to become apparent.
But, remember that the risks involved in introducing new foods to your lo are far lower than other lifestyle factors, really IMO it's better to give plenty from the off to develop taste and palate, it saves heartache later. Apparently it takes up to seventeen tries for a child to get used to a taste and they will reject tastes that haven't been introduced to them before the age of three- I don't know if this is true, I read it in a family cookbook, but it resonates with my experience of children. Try to let go of the anxiety over this- really, the example on this morning is so so rare, allergies themselves are rare, incredibly rare in the case of extreme anaphylactic allergies,.

I'd just feed her what you have. Only introducing one food a week is very limiting, she'll be about 21 before you get to avocados

Agree with getting sone piriton in and have you been on a Paed first aid course? Might help

It's really very unlikely to happen.

I discovered DS has 2 severe allergies (pine nut and kiwi fruit), but he didn't go into anaphylactic shock when it happened. Just a very nasty dose of hives, sneezing and itching, followed by being sick. His little sister is fine, no allergies at all.

You'll drive yourself loopy worrying about it if you're not careful, there's more risk crossing the road.

Thank you so much. I'm aware I may be a slightly overbearing mum, but it so helpful to hear what other mums think.

Have you got a family history of allergies? If not, it's even less likely that your baby will. My niece has some severe allergies but her mum is allergic to peanuts so it wasn't completely unexpected. Even then, the first reaction she had wasn't a life-threatening one, though subsequent reactions to the same food would be.