Help me Understand the Purpose of Delaying Certain Foods

[Casey44]

DD will be starting solids soon (I think, she's almost 6 months so we'll see) and I'm just trying to understand some things. I know there are certain foods you're supposed to wait on, and not introduce right away (like most dairy, egg yolks, certain proteins, etc.) I guess my question is- what is the purpose of delaying those? If I give her a little bit of egg yolk at 6 months and she's allergic, then we'll just stop and know she's allergic. Am I oversimplifying this? Or is it the fact that her allergic reaction might be worse at 6 months than 9 months?

Of course, I don't want to put her at risk in any way, but I also don't want to hold out on good, nutritious food when I don't fully understand the reasoning. I even asked my pediatrician if we could start with egg yolks and she thought that would be fine.

Thanks for your help! It just helps me to understand why I'm doing certain things rather than blindly following advice! I'm sure most of you are the same way! Thanks again!

[4Blessings]

For *ME*
Some items I delay because babies have trouble digesting them (milk, egg whites, and others).
Some items I delay because an allergic reaction can be serious (peanuts, fish, shellfish, and others).
Some items I delay because they are a choking hazzard.



Due to family history I choose to delay the top eight+ because I've seen a life threatening reaction in an infant and I never want to see that again

I EBF for at least seven months and then intro foods very slowly. If you have any family history of allergies (hayfever, medications, eczema, pet, etc.) you might want to do things a bit more carefully than the average person

[tanyalynn]

Data seems really mixed on whether delaying foods in general, or specific foods, helps.

My family does not have a tendency toward IgE allergies. We have food intolrancs (sorry for th lack of th ltter after d, it is iffy on my keyboard).. If/when we have another child, I will probably just share the food we eat with the baby, allowing for chewability/texture/safety types of issues. We do not eat gluten, we may never consume it again--just not sure yet. Cow's milk dairy may not be around much either, it's problematic for us now, not sure about then.

If we had a history if IgE allergies, I may make different choices, even if I thought we'd decreased the likelihood of allergies by working on health stuff.

[Masel]

Also the bigger the kid, the bigger the airway and the better chance they have of coping with a bad reaction.