Adding a small amount of allergenic foods to the weaning diet of babies and toddlers aged between 4 and 6 months goes a long way in preventing food allergies. Food allergy is a common disease that occurs in 5-7% of infants and young children, and the incidence in children is much higher than in adults.
Food allergyㅣSource: Getty Image Bank
A food allergy is a disease where the immune system recognizes certain food ingredients as antigens (allergens) when exposed to certain foods, such as peanuts or eggs, and causes an abnormal immune response. It is usually accompanied by symptoms such as itchy skin, hives and diarrhoea, but when allergens enter the body, symptoms such as △difficulty breathing △ dizziness △ low blood pressure △ reaction systemic immune (anaphylaxis) appears, which can lead to death in severe cases. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety estimates that 3.8-5.1% of the total population in Korea has food allergies.
Foods that cause allergies, it is good to be exposed to them from infancy
In the past, if one or more of your parents or siblings had a history of allergies, you were classified as a high-risk group and exposed to allergenic foods as late as possible. This is because as children grow, their organs and immune systems develop, which can make them resistant to foods that cause allergens. Accordingly, in 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that ‘milk at 1 year of age, eggs at 2 years of age, peanuts and tree nuts, and fish is recommended from 3 years of age onwards’.
However, there has been a major change in these prevention methods. First, in 2008, the American Academy of Pediatrics reversed its previous position by announcing, “There is no scientific basis for delaying the intake of allergenic foods to prevent allergies.” Since then, in 2013, Professor Debra Palmer and researchers at the University of Western Australia in Australia have published a study showing that eating eggs from infancy reduces the risk of egg allergy, causing allergies from early infancy, as studies have shown that exposure to food can reduce the risk of developing allergies, a different method of prevention has been suggested.
In 2015, Professor Gideon Lack, Department of Pediatric Allergy, King’s College London, KCL, UK, and researchers published a study in the international journal ‘The New England Journal of Medicine’ that even babies in the high risk group of allergies can benefit of baby food diets Research has shown that adding allergens, such as peanuts, can effectively prevent food allergies. At the time, the research team divided 640 high-risk babies aged between 4 and 11 months into two groups, one group was fed 24 grams of peanuts or small amounts of peanut butter three or more times a week, and no the other group fed peanuts. at all. When the participants were then tested for peanut allergy at age 5, the prevalence of peanut allergy in the group that did not eat peanuts (17.2%) was found to be more than five times higher than in the group that continued to eat peanuts (3.2%).
A similar study was recently published. In December 2022, researchers at the University of Southampton in the UK published a study in the international journal ‘The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology’ and found a small amount of peanut butter in the baby food diet between 4 and 6 months of age. A study was published showing that feeding peanuts can reduce the risk of peanut allergy by 77%.
Based on the results of these studies, countries around the world currently recommend the addition of foods containing peanuts to the weaning diet of high-risk infants between 4 and 11 months of age. In Korea, it is recommended to start feeding foods that often cause allergies, such as eggs and nuts, from 4 to 6 months of age.
