Many pediatricians recommend against giving certain foods like eggs, fish, and peanuts in the first year of life because of concerns about allergic reactions. But there is little evidence to support this practice, and even the American Academy of Pediatrics does not support it. In fact, there’s more evidence that delaying the introduction of potentially allergenic foods can increase the risk of allergies, the opposite of the intended effect.
In one study published last year in the journal Pediatrics, the late introduction of various foods was associated with an increased risk of sensitization to foods and to airborne allergens, such as house dust mites, pet dander, pollen, and mold. Sensitization does not necessarily mean a child has allergies. It means there are elevated levels of IgE antibodies, but this is a strong predictor of allergies.
The study looked at feeding behaviors in about 1,000 children from Finland, and measured their IgE levels to different allergens at age five. It found that sensitization to any food was associated with the late introduction of potatoes (more than four months after birth), oats or meat (more than five-and-a-half months), fish (more than eight months), and eggs (more than 10-and-a-half months). The late introduction of fish and eggs was specifically linked to sensitization to cow’s milk, one of the leading food allergies in children.
Sensitization to inhalant allergens like mold, pet dander, or house dust mites was associated with late introduction of potatoes, oats, rye, meat, and fish. Another article found that infants given oats before five months had a 64 percent lower likelihood of having asthma when they were five years old.
In 2008, the AAP published a position statement saying that there was insufficient evidence to recommend delaying the introduction of foods beyond four to six months, and this was also true for highly allergenic foods like fish, eggs, and peanuts.
One study examining the effects of late introduction of peanuts compared the rates of peanut allergies in Jewish children in the United Kingdom to Jewish children in Israel, where peanuts are a staple of their diet and babies are routinely given peanuts early in life.
Babies from eight to 14 months old ate a median of 7.1 g of peanut protein per month compared to 0 g in the United Kingdom. The study found that Jewish children in the United Kingdom had a 10-fold higher prevalence of peanut allergies than Jewish children in Israel.
So it could be that fear of peanuts may be raising the risk of peanut allergies, though more research is needed.
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