How To Prevent Food Allergies in Babies

How To Prevent Food Allergies in Babies During Pregnancy

in St. Louis, Missouri

How to Prevent Food Allergies in Infants

Your infant is at a higher risk of food allergy if a parent or a sibling has an allergic condition. Even if allergies do run in your immediate family, it’s important NOT to avoid allergenic foods early in the child’s development. However, if allergies do run in your family, you should proceed with caution when introducing new foods to your infant and be on the lookout for allergic reactions.

Breastfeeding

Formula Feeding

How To Introduce Solid Foods To Babies For Allergy Prevention

You can typically start to introduce solid foods to babies at four to six months depending on your child’s developmental readiness. The earliest foods that parents introduce often include fruits, vegetables and cereal grains, but allergenic foods like egg, dairy, peanut, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish should also be introduced early. In fact, delaying the introduction of allergenic foods may increase your child’s risk of developing allergies.

New foods should be introduced one at a time every three to five days to monitor your baby for allergic reactions, especially if allergies run in your family. If an allergic reaction does occur, it will usually do so within minutes of eating the trigger food. However, symptoms may be delayed by up to a few hours in some cases. Eczema (rash) is the most commonly recognized allergic response in infants, but any of the following could indicate an allergic reaction:

• Eczema
• Stuffy nose
• Sneezing
• Teary eyes
• Wheezing
• Diarrhea
• Swelling
• General signs of discomfort

in St. Louis, Missouri

Pediatric Food Allergy Testing

If you suspect a food allergy in your baby, the best course of action is to see an allergist to confirm a diagnosis. Self-diagnosing an allergy is not recommended due to false positives, and unnecessary food avoidance can cause more harm than good for your child.

Dr. Cajigal specializes in pediatric food allergy diagnostic techniques, including oral food challenges, skin testing, and blood testing.

Parents will sometimes seek allergy testing outside of the expertise of a board-certified allergist. Alternative methods can include massive screening tests done in supermarkets or drug stores, allergy testing through muscle relaxation, cytotoxicity testing, skin titration, and provocation testing, and others. In general, these alternative methods are not recommended, and they will not allow you to reliably pinpoint the cause of an allergic reaction in your child. Seeing an allergist is the surest method to get to the bottom of your child’s allergies and establish a formal diagnosis. You can learn more about certified baby food allergy test methods below.

Food Challenge

Skin Testing

Dr. Cajigal may suggest a food allergy skin-prick test, where small volumes of food allergens (and controls) are placed on your child’s skin and pricked with a sterile needle. After 20 minutes, the skin is re-examined for any bumps indicating an allergic reaction.

Baby Food Allergy Blood Test

See a Food Allergy Doctor

in St. Louis, Missouri

Infant Food Allergy Treatment

If your infant has food allergies, there will undoubtedly be many situations in your child’s life where they will be unable to control their environment or the foods that they’re exposed to. Depending on what food(s) your child is allergic to, there may be treatments available that can help minimize the severity of their allergic reactions and even enable them to safely ingest foods that they’re allergic to. You can learn more about allergy treatment options below.

Avoid Trigger Foods

Have an Action Plan

Outgrowing Food Allergies

Oral Immunotherapy

Oral immunotherapy is an emerging treatment in which gradually increasing amounts of an allergen are fed to an individual with food allergies. The goal of oral immunotherapy is to increase the amount of exposure to an allergen that the individual can tolerate. For example, someone with a peanut allergy may be given a very small amount of peanut protein to build up a tolerance to peanuts over time. Oral immunotherapy has not been shown to cure allergies, however it can greatly reduce the severity of allergic reactions. Recent evidence suggests that the earlier your child starts with oral immunotherapy, the more effective it is.

We hope you’ve found this information helpful. Get in touch with us at St. Louis Family Allergy to learn more about food allergy prevention for your child. We’re looking forward to your visit.

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