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Keeping Your Baby Food Allergy Free |
When a new mom and dad bring that little infant home to live with  them, one of the top priorities is the safety and the health of the infant. That angel seems so small and fragile that it is up to mom and dad to learn all they can to keep health problems from making their infant's life miserable. Along with fighting germs and common infant diseases, it is smart to think about how to battle food allergies even before they get a chance to influence the health of your newborn.
If there is a family history of food allergies, that could be passed to the next generation. But food allergies can develop in youngsters where there is no genetics involved. The key to preventing food allergies from getting a foothold in the life of your baby is to be very careful about when certain food are introduced to the youngster and be mindful of signs of food allergies so you can get help early on before the problem becomes serious.
Solid foods should not be introduced to the diet of your infant too quickly. If you breast feed for six months or more, that period of time will be somewhat safe from passing a food allergy to your child. Nonetheless, even during nursing, consult with your physician about what kind of nutrition the mother should consume because that will have an impact on what is being passed to the baby through the breast milk the child drinks.
After the newborn is six months old, solid food can be introduced very gradually. The best starter solid food for a baby under a year old is infant rice cereal. Studies have shown that the possibility of a food allergy starting with rice cereal is quite small. Nonetheless, keep an eye on any signal that the baby's body is not tolerating the new foods.
Pay attention to excessive gas, fussiness, unexplained rashes or constipation as that may show that the baby is not handling the new diet well. Cut back to foods you know she can eat and give the little one a little more time before moving on to solid food options in the infant's diet.
As you plan the expansion of the diet of your baby, make monitoring the new foods for potential of food allergy reactions as part of your planning. For example, do not introduce more than one new food at a time. If you add three or four new items to the baby's diet and a food allergy develops, it will be harder to know which food caused the problem. By adding new items to the diet of your infant one at a time, if one causes an allergic reaction, you can eliminate that type of food quickly and so push the food allergy out of your baby's system.
Be aware that there are certain foods that we already know about that have a greater risk of causing a food allergy in your youngster. Those items include shellfish, eggs, wheat, milk and peanuts. Also, discuss the issue of food allergies with the baby's grandparents and other relatives. If there are unusual food allergies in the family, better safe than sorry to just keep that kind of food out of the little one's diet until she is a little older.
Be aware, however that food allergies can still crop up even when you take all of the proper precautions. So watch for the symptoms of food allergies in infants that we already discussed. Also, be aware the diarrhea, hives, skin rashes or nausea could all be food allergy related. By being mindful of the potential of such allergies, you can avoid a lot of problems that could influence the health and happiness of that beautiful new baby that has come home to live with you.
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