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.
Peanut and egg are the two common allergens with the most research to support introducing them to infants before their first birthday. More research is being done now to understand the best time to introduce other allergens. However, the experts agree that the evidence does not support withholding allergens after 4-6 months as a means to prevent food allergies.
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In fact, guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease recommend introducing peanut foods in safe formats as early as 4-6 months to help prevent a potential peanut allergy. You can read more about that here. Eggs and other common allergens should be introduced to Baby at around 6 months old, or when your little one is developmentally ready for solid foods.
But how do you introduce peanut and egg? It may be easier than you think. Here are five super easy ways to incorporate peanut foods. For egg, you can try simply boiling an egg well (no runny center) and mashing or pureeing into an age-appropriate consistency to start.
Once your little one has successfully enjoyed peanut and egg separately, you can try all sorts of fun combinations. Give these fun recipes a try and enjoy the funny faces and mmm’s!
Peanut Butter Oatmeal with Egg
Peanut Butter Sweet Potato Souffle
For more about introducing peanut foods to infants to help prevent a potential peanut allergy, visit PreventPeanutAllergies.org.
Image credit: Kenan Hill