Can introducing food prematurely cause long lasting allergies or intolerances?
My wife and I are are starting to wean our 5-months old baby girl. What we are trying to do is a kind of baby-led weaning in which we basically give her the same things we are eating at our meal, in spoonfuls small enough such that she can swallow them without chocking. She seems to appreciate them, she reacts positively to the spoon, she opens her mouth, sometimes she even "throws" herself towards the spoon. She is not yet able to properly swallow, so a good part of what we give her falls down from her mouth, but I guess that's part of the learning process. Because of that, what she actually eats is rather small, so then she has her usual breastfeeding after her meal with us.
For the moment (a few days, right now) we haven't given much thought at what we would give her, except being attentive that she would like it (and, for the moment, she seemed to like whatever we would propose her). However, we are now asking ourselves whether there is any last-longing damage prematurely introducing some food might cause.
For example, could it happen that prematurely introducing some kind of foods, even if she likes it, might produce allergies or intolerances or coeliac disease?
Notice that I am not asking if food might trigger reactions to allergies or intolerances she would already have (or develop in the future) anyway, but only if that might bring to an allergy that would not have come if we didn't give her such food.
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You've got it backwards. Introducing foods early reduces the chances of allergies.
readysetfood.com/blogs/community/the-aap-s-new-guidelines-for-infant-food-allergy-prevention-what-families-need-to-know
“In fact, parents should introduce allergens as early as 4-6 months
according to the AAP and recent landmark studies. In addition, the AAP
simplifies the advice for prevention by recommending early allergen
introduction as the first line of defense against food allergies, even
for breastfed or hydrolyzed formula-fed infants.”
www.aaaai.org/about-aaaai/newsroom/news-releases/food
Despite overall low adherence to the early introduction regimen, early
introduction to allergenic solids was found to be effective in
preventing the development of food allergies in specific groups of
infants; those sensitized to food at enrollment and those with eczema
of increasing severity at enrollment.
About the only thing that your baby could physically eat but is not safe is honey. Cow's milk is also not good either; both are okay at 12 months.
To my knowledge, introducing foodstuffs to your child does not cause allergies or intolerance. We were even given the advice to introduce foods that relatively many people are allergic to (such a peanuts) rather early on introducing our child to solid foods.
On the other hand, there are other reasons why some foods should not be given to babies and small children. Some of those reasons are that the digestive system can't process those foods properly or that they can contain bacteria or other pathogens that could be harmful.
I don't have a overview handy that shows what can be eaten from what age and the insights into that can change from time to time. Your baby's Primary Care Provider should be able to inform you what you can give your baby now and at what age other things can be introduced.
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