Delaying Solids in Infant May Increase Risk for Allergies

[haydn'smommy]

New study published in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics shows that delaying solids may increase risk for allergies. What do you all think?
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/713728
I'm very confused as to how this would happen, and of course, the mean length of breastfeeding in the study was only 1.8mos so this would really only apply to formula feed babies, IMO, but the authors are saying that this shows that EBF does not protect against allergies.

[mambera]

Originally Posted by haydn'smommy

New study published in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics shows that delaying solids may increase risk for allergies. What do you all think?
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/713728
I'm very confused as to how this would happen, and of course, the mean length of breastfeeding in the study was only 1.8mos so this would really only apply to formula feed babies, IMO, but the authors are saying that this shows that EBF does not protect against allergies.

Makes perfect sense to me. Generally speaking it seems like allergies are related to *underexposure*, not overexposure, to the allergen. Hence why kids in 'cleaner' societies tend to have more allergies. It makes more sense to me that the organism would 'learn' to see a food as harmless if it were introduced in a timely way.

Anyway I have the pdf. PM me if you want it, anybody.

Overview is, sensitization to any food allergen was associated with late introduction of potatoes (>4 months), oats (>5.5 months), rye (>7 months), meat (>5.5 months), fish (>8.2 months), and eggs (>10.5 months).

They repeated the analysis separately for the subgroup of parents with allergies and found no change in their results.

The study is looking at the time of introduction of specific foods - not of *any* complementary food - so I'm not sure the duration of EBF is relevant at all. But anyway, mean duration of EBF was 1.8 months with range 0-10 months. Of the 994 subjects, 330 EBF <1 month, 357 EBF 1-3 months, and 307 EBF >3 months.

[haydn'smommy]

It makes perfect sense for a formula fed baby, but not so much for a breastfed baby. One of my peds and I were discussing this article and feel like breastfed babies are exposed to many, many different proteins through breastfeeding (milk, eggs, etc) and think that this likely wouldn't apply to an exclusively breastfed baby. She's as pro-bfing as I am, though, and we hate to see anything that might interfere with a baby being breastfed and certainly introducing solids too early can interfere with mom's supply.
IDK how this will affect our practice and when we tell moms to start solids. I'll be interested in seeing what the AAP does with this and if they change their recommendations.

[LadyCatherine185]

Originally Posted by haydn'smommy

It makes perfect sense for a formula fed baby, but not so much for a breastfed baby. One of my peds and I were discussing this article and feel like breastfed babies are exposed to many, many different proteins through breastfeeding (milk, eggs, etc) and think that this likely wouldn't apply to an exclusively breastfed baby. .

this makes total sense to me.

[SMR]

It makes sense to me.. I've always wondered how introducing foods made the risk of allergies higher. It seems we have so many more people allergic to everything these days. Way back when, they were giving infants cereal at like 1 week!

[LadyCatherine185]

Originally Posted by SMR

It makes sense to me.. I've always wondered how introducing foods made the risk of allergies higher. It seems we have so many more people allergic to everything these days. Way back when, they were giving infants cereal at like 1 week!

I think the theory behind that is, if you introduce too early (before the gut is closed) then the food goes through the holes in the digestive system and messes things up.