[AlexisT]

DD is coming up to 6mos so I'm doing some research on weaning. One thing I noticed on various BLW pages is that they talk about giving foods that are normally not recommended till an older age (e.g. giving pasta/bread to babies under 1 year old). Do BLW proponents have their own idea on the sequence of foods for allergy purposes?

(I haven't 100% decided how I'm going to do it, I think it's going to be a bit of a mix though. No point pureeing everything, no reason not to give her mashed potato if I eat it that way myself.)

 

[boscopup]

There's really no medical evidence that waiting on certain foods will prevent allergies. It's just a US recommendation that just has no foundation in science, from what I've read. And there *may* be a protective effect by having small amounts of allergen foods. They just don't know that much about how to prevent or predict allergies yet.

Now if you have a family history of allergies, then you might want to be more careful. My family has no allergies, and my first son has no allergies. My second son is 7.5 months old and has had wheat bread, cheese, fish, most meats, etc. I haven't given him peanut butter yet. But most things, I go ahead and give him. I do watch for reactions with common allergens, but so far, so good.

And yes, I know that you can have a child with allergies even if you have no family history of allergies. But since there is no medical evidence that delaying allergen foods is helpful, I will continue with the route I've taken, and if we have an allergy pop up, we'll avoid that food.

 

[2babes:-)]

I've never heard about staying off pasta or bread till a year. I've always heard 6 months as a guideline. Both my 2 have had gluten from 6 months.

I didn't puree for long - and actually mashed potato is nicer than pureed - something happens (to the gluten I assume) when you puree potato and it goes extra sticky. I think after a few weeks I was mashing everything and now we're just chopping. Ashleigh was feeding herself with a spoon at 9 months.

I mostly spoonfeed but we do finger foods too. Grace's favourites are apple (now she has some teeth!) and rice cakes.

She loves banana but it's too slippery!

 

[wflcpw]

Quote:

Originally Posted by boscopup There's really no medical evidence that waiting on certain foods will prevent allergies. It's just a US recommendation that just has no foundation in science, from what I've read. And there *may* be a protective effect by having small amounts of allergen foods. They just don't know that much about how to prevent or predict allergies yet. Now if you have a family history of allergies, then you might want to be more careful. My family has no allergies, and my first son has no allergies. My second son is 7.5 months old and has had wheat bread, cheese, fish, most meats, etc. I haven't given him peanut butter yet. But most things, I go ahead and give him. I do watch for reactions with common allergens, but so far, so good. And yes, I know that you can have a child with allergies even if you have no family history of allergies. But since there is no medical evidence that delaying allergen foods is helpful, I will continue with the route I've taken, and if we have an allergy pop up, we'll avoid that food.

:
DS is now 9 months and he too has had all berries - loves strawberries, cream of wheat, bread, fish, cashew butter, almond butter, peanut butter (was the last to be introduced since I read somewhere that if they are allergic to peanuts, they will also show some allergic tendencies towards other nuts, just less dramatic) LOVES nut butters on a rice cake BTW, milk products ect, with no problems.
Great Post!