Protect Your Baby from Food Allergies
You can take steps, but there’s no proof that common tactics work
Food allergies have risen 18 percent among children and teens in the past decade, according to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If allergy-based conditions of any kind
run in your family—be it hay fever, eczema or asthma—your baby has an above-average chance
of joining them.
What Can You Do?
The American Academy of Pediatrics
(AAP) believes you can take steps to
help prevent food allergies. After
reviewing studies, the AAP found
evidence to support two strategies:
- Breastfeed your baby if possible. Breastfeeding for at least four months can reduce the chance of developing asthma or cow’s milk allergy in babies with a family history of allergies. When breastfeeding is not an option, try a hypo-allergenic formula without cow milk protein.
- Avoid giving your child solid foods until he or she is at least 4 months old. It’s not clear whether there’s any allergy-fighting benefit to waiting even longer.
Talk with your doctor to see if these
strategies may help your child.
The AAP couldn’t find proof that
several popular strategies prevent
food allergies. For example, researchers
couldn’t prove that mothers-to-be
who avoid certain foods can protect
infants from food allergies. Waiting
until children are older to introduce
them to eggs, peanut butter and
other foods couldn’t be proven to
help, either.
Why Are Food Allergies Rising?
One theory points to our obsession
with germs. The more surfaces we
clean with antibacterial wipes and
the more hands we wash with antibacterial
gel, the fewer germs there
are for babies’ immune systems to
fight. Idle armies get bored and turn
their attention to nonhostile invaders—such as food. Allergic reactions
happen when the body mistakes
food as an enemy intruder.
Allergy—or Intolerance?
Despite the increase in food allergies,
they still affect fewer than 4 percent of
children and teens. Food intolerances
are much more common.
What’s the difference? It’s all in how
the body reacts to a particular food.
If the body responds to a food with a
cascade of antibodies from the immune
system, that’s a food allergy. In other
words, your body reacts to a food the
same way someone else’s body might
react to a common allergen such as cat
hair or ragweed.
If it’s your body’s digestive system
that has trouble with a food, then you
have a food intolerance. For example,
many people are lactose-intolerant.
Their digestive systems don’t produce
enough lactase to help them absorb
milk, so the result is cramps and
diarrhea.

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