It's always a great time to talk about some of the benefits of and surprising facts about breastfeeding. Here's what the research shows about breastfeeding and food allergies.
Many parents are aware of the benefits of introducing common allergens early, but keeping peanut foods in baby’s diet is an important piece of the prevention puzzle. Parents had few ready-to-serve choices in the past, but options continue to grow and expand with some exciting new entries in the peanut-for-baby category.
With so much already to talk about during infant well visits, when it’s time to introduce solid foods to your healthy baby, you may wonder how to have that conversation with your provider—especially when it comes to feeding your baby potentially allergenic foods like peanuts for the first time.
Introducing new foods into your baby’s diet is exciting and consistent research is showing that adding peanut products as early as 4-6 months can help reduce their risk of developing a peanut allergy later on in life. Have fun introducing your little one to peanut butter by adding it to easy recipes that the whole family will love.
The new Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) were released at the end of December 2021. If you missed the announcement, then you also missed a critical insight for healthcare providers and new parents to help bring an end to a public health challenge simply by being intentional about when and what we feed infants.
There are a lot of firsts for parents and Baby in that beginning year of life. From Baby’s first smile and laugh to the first full night of sleep and first time rolling over, it’s an exciting time! Feeding babies food beyond breastmilk or formula is a fun-filled experience too. You can introduce a wide variety of foods when your baby is ready, including common allergens. In fact, you may be surprised how early your baby can start eating these foods so they can grow up to be a big, healthy kid with a diverse diet – and they may also have a reduced risk of food allergies.
More than 98% of school-age children can enjoy peanuts without any issue and food allergies can be safely managed in schools while still making them available to non-allergic students.