Feeding your child common household foods like peanut butter can save them from a lifetime of allergies – if you do so early enough
- Experts suggest feeding children peanut-based foods to prevent allergies
- One in 10 Australian-born babies will develop a milt to severe food allergy
- Australia currently has the highest rate of food allergies in the world
New advice suggests parents should be feeding their children peanut-based foods early in life to avoid developing life-long allergies.
The advice comes from the government-funded website National Allergy Strategy, launched on Monday, to help reduce food allergies in Australian-born children.
‘Research shows that giving your baby the common allergy causing foods before they are one year of age can greatly reduce the risk of them developing an allergy to that food,’ the website said.
‘When your baby is ready at around six months, but not before four months, start to introduce first foods including smooth peanut butter/paste and well-cooked egg.’
Australia currently has the highest rate of food allergies in the world, with one in 10 Australian-born babies developing mild to severe allergies to foods like peanuts, eggs and milk before the age of one.
New advice suggests new parents should be feeding their children peanut-based foods to avoid life-log allergies
Paediatric immunologist Richard Loh, co-chair of the National Allergy Strategy, told the ABC that Australia’s allergy rates are getting worse.
‘It’s been increasing for the past 20 years,’ Dr Loh said.
‘Australian data has shown a rise of approximately 7 per cent a year for the past five years, in terms of food allergies.’
The website suggested one possible reason for the increase could be parents and carers aren’t introducing common allergy-causing foods early enough.
Furthermore, Dr Loh said delaying the introduction of these foods has been proven not to prevent allergies.
Australia currently has the highest rate of food allergies in the world, with one in 10 Australian-born babies developing mild to severe allergies to foods like peanuts, eggs and milk before the age of one (stock image)
The advice comes after 2015 known as LEAP (Learning Early About Peanut) discovered giving babies peanut-based foods at around six months of age dramatically lowered their chance of developing a peanut allergy.
‘If you introduce peanut between four to 11 months of age in what we call high-risk infants — so these are infants with moderate or severe eczema and, or egg allergy — it could reduce peanut allergy by up to 80 per cent,’ Dr Loh said.
Other common allergy causing foods include fish, eggs, all tree nuts, dairy, soy, shellfish, and sesame.