Am I right to think they can eat anything (within reason)

[gingerninja]

DD almost 7 months, (exact age I forget without counting because I'm a terrible mother but that is a different thread) anyway I've been BLWing and just giving her bit of our food to smear everywhere however I started a thread about what looked like a reaction to fish and was told that I should be introducing food more slowly (shes got eczema) however, neither I or DH have any alergies and she hasn't reacted to anything else so far. She's been having dairy without any problem, although the day after 'fishgate' had a dairyfest and did have a bit of a flare up but it could have still been the fish.

Anyways, I've been chastising myself, again, for being numero uno mumsy horriblus for letting lo taste mozzarella, humus, bread, etc etc. I've got to know. Should I have avoided them all and just been brining her up on a diet of carrot batons?

Ahh, this childrearing is such an emotional shackle.

there are different types of eczema. some babies get what's known as baby eczema which then clears up by the time they're 3. this isn't to do with the hereditary type eczema. dd has some eczema on her neck, back of knees and fore arms. she's had this almost since birth, and i only breastfed her until she was 6 months old. none of the family have it.

so it's up to you how you deal with it. you can try cutting things out of her diet to see if it makes a difference. or you can stick to giving her any foods and use various lotions and potions to treat her skin. or a bit of both.

on aitch's blog there is a guide to introducing food for allergy prone children.

Thanks BD, did you avoid anything with your LO? We've seen a dermatologist who isn't at all concerned and is pretty sure she will grow out of it and our HV said not to avoid food groups for the sake of it so we went ahead and started trying everything (only avoided eggs so far)and with the exception of last week there is no suggestion of food playing a major part in it.

Does anyone know if by delaying the introduction of certain foods are you delaying avoiding a reaction or introducing it at a stage when they're more likely to be tolerant? Essentially, by letting DD taste the fish am I likely to have given her an allergy or just discovered it early?

it really depends what you read and what you believe. i personally haven't avoided any food group. i breastfed exclusively for the first 6 months. for all i know her early eczema may be due to my own consumption of dairy. i just don't know. i could have eliminated it from my diet. but i didn;t. her skin isn't bad. if it had been bad i may have considered it. i manage her skin with thick moistursers and oats in her baths. she doesn't scratch her skin, it doesn't bother her. i hope she'll grow out of it.

when she started on solid food we basically did fruit and veg for 1st 2 weeks, then introduced bread and pasta. then at 7 months introduced meat protein. we did dairy from 6 months. her skin didn;t get and better or worse, was just the same.

have you looked at the links on aitch's site about allergies?

Yes, thanks. I've seen that before and like you I bf exclusively for 6 months. Well, I started BLW about a week and a half before the official date but with just veg and only at 6 months introduced wheat and oats then another couple of weeks on and dairy. Tried the fish last week and just started to introduce meat this week. Her skin isn't bad either and it doesn't bother her. We did have a stage where it was pretty bad but I was on a dairy free diet and she was bf so go figure. It might be nothing to do with food. Thanks again