Go nuts in tots’ diet to prevent allergies

ALL babies should have peanuts and eggs introduced to their diets in their first year of life to prevent food allergies, even if they are deemed to be high risk, experts say.

Guidelines developed by the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy recommend that parents should start feeding solid foods to babies at about six months of age, preferably while they continue to breastfeed.

The society suggests egg and peanuts should be introduced by 12 months, but not before four months.

Once the foods are introduced, the guidelines recommend they should be continued twice weekly so that tolerance is not lost.

“Hydrolysed” infant formula – designed to be hypo-allergenic – is no longer recommended for the prevention of allergies.

The recommendations are outlined in the latest Medical Journal of Australia, published today.

Lead author Preeti Joshi, based at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, in Sydney, said that food allergy rates in Australia were among the highest in the world.

Melbourne research has shown that about one in 10 babies have a proven food allergy before their first birthday.

Food allergies involving egg, cow’s milk, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish are the most common in Australia.

Previous infant feeding guidelines have recommended that certain allergenic foods be avoided in early childhood.

But writing in the Medical Journal of Australia, Dr Joshi said that “moderate evidence” was emerging that regular peanut intake before 12 months of age could reduce the risk of children developing peanut allergy.

She said if parents were concerned about introducing peanuts to their children, particularly if they already had severe eczema or an egg allergy, they should discuss this with a doctor.