From Good Housekeeping
In January, the United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Health released their updated set of dietary guidelines that will be in effect by 2025. Many health experts regretted that current recommendations on adding sugar have not changed much, among other concerns. The federal health experts behind the report recommended, however, new restrictions on adding sugar to the first advice of all for parents of babies and young children. According to the report, no amount of added sugar is acceptable for children under 2; the authors of the guidelines cite the strong link between childhood obesity and health problems later in life as the reasoning behind their new stance.
But parents (and prospective parents!) May raise eyebrows because of a new suggestion based on data about food exposure to peanuts and other allergens, which is the opposite of what they may have heard in the past.
The new guidelines ask parents to introduce “nutrient-rich” foods for babies, in addition to milk or formula from 6 months of age, including known allergens that many parents may have historically avoided. “Peanuts, eggs, derivatives of cow’s milk, nuts, wheat, crustaceans, fish and soybeans must be introduced when other complementary foods are introduced in the children’s diet”, instruct the guidelines. “The introduction of foods containing peanuts in the first year reduces a child’s risk of developing food allergies to peanuts.”
The change in the board has to do with innovative research known as the LEAP (Learning Early About Peanut Allergy) study, explains Sanjeev Jain, MD, Ph.D., an immunologist and founder of Columbia allergy clinics in the Pacific Northwest. In the 1980s, explains Dr. Jain, when food allergies started to become more and more common, allergists believed that delaying the oral introduction of potential allergens (mainly peanuts) was necessary to prevent allergic reactions later in life. life. The American Academy of Pediatrics even asked parents to wait to introduce peanuts to children until they were 3 years old and eggs at 2 years old, in guidelines published in 2000. But the LEAP study, published shortly after the last series of diets in the USDA guidelines were made public in 2015, “clearly showed that the early introduction of peanuts, from the age of four months, reduced the risk of developing peanut allergies,” he adds.
Always consult your child’s doctor before introducing new foods into your routine.
According to Dr. Jain, allergy experts have a surplus of data that confirms that a baby’s immune system and digestive tract can adapt to foreign foods – things they have never eaten before – almost naturally. “The immune system in the first six months of life is especially malleable; it can adapt to any environmental exposure that is occurring at that age, much more than later in life, ”he explains.
In fact, getting a baby or child to ingest allergens is important if that food is in the domestic environment around you. For peanuts, in particular, a baby can easily become sensitized to peanuts if his skin is in frequent contact with his antigens (or proteins) – especially if he already has eczema or another skin problem, says Michael Pistiner, MD, a member of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America’s Medical Scientific Council. “What [sensitization] it can lead a child towards developing a food allergy, “he explains, adding that other allergies other than peanuts can also develop that way.” That is why it seems that when these children start to have their exposure to food by mouth and eat it, it can help to decrease the chance of developing an allergy to that food. “
But what about soy, eggs or other nuts? Robert Coles, MD, a pediatrician in the Health System at the University of California at San Diego, says that while the evidence is not so clear for these allergens, experts are treating them similarly to peanuts based on logic. “Given the specific data for peanuts and eggs, we now recommend that – from an allergy perspective – complementary foods and other highly allergenic foods can be introduced into the child’s diet at any time after four to six months of age,” he explains. Some exceptions can be thicker staple foods, such as peanut butter or honey, which can present choking risks if not properly prepared, with the latter presenting some risk of botulism for babies (“Even highly processed honey can carry bacteria spores” , adds Dr. Jain).
For children outside the recommended age range of four to six months, allergy clinician Dr. Jain says that slowly adding traces of nuts or small amounts of soy for children of age is still widely recommended. “It’s never too late … Do you have a window of opportunity to present [foods] before allergies develop “, he adds.” Exposure through the skin without obtaining equal exposure by oral and dietary route is not ideal, as it leads to a possible sensitization of this food “.
Perhaps the most important lesson for parents – both those who are receiving their first child or those who are anxious in the kitchen due to another child’s allergy development – is that introducing food for babies and younger children at home comes with a very low risk of a serious allergic reaction. Dr. Jain explains that anaphylaxis is rare in this case: “The current guidelines are that the risk of introducing your food at home is so low, when it comes to a life-threatening allergic reaction, that it is considered safe to do it. “
Regardless of your child’s age or whether or not you have tried new foods at home, there is always the option of doing what is called an “oral challenge”, available to families in an office setting. “We give common allergens in the office to confirm that the child is not allergic to that food, which may take a while to locate each food, but at least we are trying,” says Dr. Jain. Moving forward, it seems that most allergists can agree on one thing: Not feeding your children allergies out of fear can end up causing that food allergy you fear.
If you are concerned about a child and possible food allergies, be aware of known visual reactions to known allergens. The most common symptoms of an allergic reaction include rashes, itching or hives, swelling or swelling, shortness of breath, stomach pain and dizziness. For more information on common reaction signals, and instructions on how to get emergency help, visit the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
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