Introducing Solids and Allergies

When my daughter was 5 months old, I started researching about introducing solids and allergy. As a first time parent scared of what if my child will have an allergic reaction, I have only heard about not introducing solids until 6 months and that to use the four day rule for each food. But the more I researched the more confused I became. First I see information about peanut, some information are so extreme that they would suggest you to avoid peanuts during pregnancy and breastfeeding and to not introduce it to your child until age 3 at least. But then there are information saying that in cultures that eat peanuts a lot, there is hardly any peanut allergy, and these cultures also often use peanuts as one of the first foods. Then there are information saying that early introduction of peanuts prevents peanut allergy. Well, anyway, too late for that for me. I ate peanut butter like normal during pregnancy, and right after my daughter was born I started eating peanuts in soup, a common post-partum Chinese recipe to bring in your milk. I figure it is true that we hardly hear about peanut allergies in the Chinese community. Next thing is I see a study that says introducing cow’s milk in formula to your baby during the first 15 days of life prevents against developing cow’s milk protein allergy. Hmm… again, an information too late to know, but my daughter probably did drank about 2 ounces of formula total during the first 15 days of life, due to some early breastfeeding issues, who knows if that did her good or harm. Then I see the study about introducing grains before 6 months of age prevented wheat allergies. Then there is information about how humans should really delay grain because we don’t develop the proper enzyme to digest them until 2 or 3 years old, and that eating them early causes allergy. Well, I guess this doesn’t matter that much as well, since by the time I saw this information my daughter is already 6 months old and it is really hard to avoid grains until 2 or 3 of age when it is in such abundance in our diets. During all this research, I also see information not necessarily related to allergies, but it says it is important to introduce food at 6 months so your baby doesn’t develop an oral aversion to food. Then of course there is the other end that says to delay any solids until age one. Confusing? Definitely. The conclusion is, we have no idea what causes food allergies at all, maybe it is not even related to early or late introduction at all. A general consensus seems to be that if you are going to be allergic, you are going to be regardless. But I did finally make a decision for my daughter when solid time came; I went with the Baby Led Weaning method. I offered her whatever table food we have for her, and I let her be the judge and decide what she needs. I choose to not stress about what to feed her, or how much to feed her because simply I am not feeding her at all. Also, the best thing about BLW is that it forced us parents to look at what we are eating as well, and to make healthy choices. I will talk more about our BLW adventure in my next post.