Scientific Study

Over the past two decades we have been debating the question of whether the age of commencement of complementary feeding affects the risk of developing food allergy. We ate up the notion that delayed introduction of more allergenic foods in early childhood, would help overcome the increasing rates of food allergy, then we promptly spat it out again despite limited evidence. Recently high-quality randomised controlled trial evidence has given us the confidence to swallow the concept that allergenic foods, like egg and peanut, should be given to infants. We now need to recommend that when an infant is developmentally ready, a variety of nutritious foods should be introduced to ensure high diet diversity, including the 'more allergenic' foods during infancy.