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The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that babies shouldn’t be introduced to solid foods until they are at least six months old. However, if new guidelines were to be believed, you can begin weaning your baby on solid foods much before the mooted six-month time.
However, an introduction to solid food shouldn’t interfere with regular breastfeeding patterns, and you need to remember that your baby still needs breast milk.
According to the US National Alliance Of Pediatric Food Allergy, there isn’t enough evidence to suggest that expensively priced ‘hypo-allergenic’ baby foods prevent allergies in infants. The new guidelines were thus devised to help parents get more accurate and specific information on how and when to introduce commonly allergenic foods to infants, to help develop resistance against possible future allergies.
Dr. Katie Allen from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute says that “We would ask people to refrain from feeding eggs, peanuts, or cow’s milk to your infant. But now we’re saying introduction is safe and maybe protective. We believed that nursing will protect a baby, but there is little evidence to suggest so.”
Other experts are also saying something along the same lines, retracting from earlier opinions, and forming new ones. Dr. Maria Said, president of Anaphylaxis Australia, says: “Early introduction doesn’t mean your child won’t have an allergic reaction, but, according to the evidence, this is what you should do for a four-month-old angel.”
NHRMC Nutrition Group member, and one of the contributors to the new guidelines, Dr. Rosemary Stanton opined that it was rather shocking and misleading that some communities were still holding on to unfounded, and often dangerous, advice like ‘not introducing foods in your baby’s diet until he’s one to two years old.
What you need to remember, and what we cannot stress enough, is that every pregnancy has a unique trajectory, and all cases are different. So, talk to your pediatrician. Let her determine the best course of action.
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