How To Get Started Allergen Weaning?

What is allergen introduction?

Once you have introduced a variety of solid foods successfully to your baby's diet, you can now begin to introduce the top allergen foods that can trigger allergic reactions. You need to introduce these one at a time and serve them in combination with already accepted "safe foods" in small amounts so that you can spot any reaction. 

The processes of allergen introduction means that you feed your baby servings of  eggs, milk, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts and seeds every week, as soon as they properly swallow and digest solid food, and you continue this processes through their first birthday. 

Why serve with a safe food? 

Many babies start eating with a pureed vegetable or fruit. Once your baby has shown that they can swallow one food texture, they can swallow any food in the same texture. Whist there are a few ways to introduce nut and seed allergens, such as grinding down whole nuts and seeds or watering down thick nut butters. The easiest way is with the Baby, are you nuts? Organic allergen weaning test kit. This allows you to continue giving your baby the same texture of food and by simply adding in one of the pre-measured mix-in doses. This helps you to quickly add the chosen allergen to any meal. In allergen introduction, the allergens are a part of their meals, but not the whole meal, this trains your baby immune system to tolerate common allergens as they are absorbed in the gut at a slow rate mixed in with an accepted immune trained food. Continuing to expose your babies immune system to the allergen through regular exposure by showing your baby a food/allergen over and over, helps to train the immune system to learn that it is safe. 

The kit contains 8 organic of the top nut and seed allergens in pre-measured mix-in doses that can be hard to find even in nut or seed butter form in the supermarket.

• Peanut
• Sesame seed
• Soya
• Almond
• Hazel nut
• Brazil nut
• Cashew nut - ( *gives cover for Pistachio) 
• Walnut - ( *gives cover for Pecan) 

 * These nuts are linked as they come from the same family of trees and should your child become allergic to cashew nuts its likely they will also be allergic to pistachio. 

There are three important pieces for allergen immune system training to work:

• Timing - A baby needs to train their immune system before they develop an allergy. Training should start as soon as a baby starts solid foods. Most food allergies develop between 6 and 10 months old, so early introduction should start by 6 months, and continue to the first birthday.

• Enough - A baby’s body needs 2g of protein each time to properly learn to tolerate a food. If you give a baby teensy amounts of a food, their immune system may not learn to tolerate it.

• Often - A baby’s body needs regular training (at least weekly) until their first birthday to learn to tolerate a food.

Regular exposure:

We understand that feeding your baby servings of peanuts, all the different tree nuts and seeds every week till their first birthday and beyond is an overwhelming intense idea that seems nearly impossible with the stresses of every day family life. So we have designed follow on powders that you can quickly mix-in to smoothies, food sources, or add to your baking. Making light work of regular exposure. 

Before Starting:

Your child must be well when introducing the nuts and seed allergens from the kit. If they have a cold, a fever, are vomiting or have any other illness. Then wait until they are fully recovered.  This is because signs of an allergic reaction can look similar to look to your child being generally unwell. There is also an increased chance of them reacting to a new food as their body is already in a fight mood. 

Timing:

Introduce allergens early in the day, consider shortly after they wake in the morning or right after a morning nap, as you want them to be alert and lets you observe your child during the day ahead and should an allergic reaction occur, it is easier to contact your doctor for guidance. (Suggested time frame: 8.30-12.00) We also recommend testing in the week for a similar reason as hospitals are quiet should a visit be required when dealing with a reaction. It is best to introduce allergens inside at home not in a public place and quiet play is recommended during observation times (not running around after, or over exerting themselves as it could make spotting a reaction harder, for example: shortness of breath). It’s essential an adult is present with the child at all times to focus their full attention on the child (without distraction from other children or household activities) for at least two hours post-introduction. Most importantly, make yourself familiar with the signs and symptoms to look out for. we advise dressing the child in a short-sleeved T-shirt, so the reaction on arms, and tummy can be easily checked and seen.

Test one, at a time:

The kit is designed to test one allergen, over one week, one day at a time. (don’t give 2 new foods on the same day). This is in order to pinpoint a reaction, as not all babies with allergies will react on the first exposure. We advise leaving a day between testing for potential delayed reactions to show, then reintroducing the same allergen again on day three. If symptom-free for 48 hours, it's considered a safe food and can be added to the diet. Now you can move on to the next allergen.

The organic allergen weaning kit

Has been designed to be cost effect and simplify the allergen weaning process, supporting parents with a wealth of knowledge and confidence when introducing allergens. The pre-measured stick contains 5g of organic nut/seed powder. Hopefully, now you have built up a repertoire of “safe foods” for your baby. You can either mix the powders into a sip cup of smoothie and sever, or alternatively, you can mix into a small amount of porridge, purée, or mashed foods and then spoon feed. We recommend a small amount around 4oz of food so your child is most likely to eat it all. If your baby doesn’t seem interested, save and store the meal try again the nest day. It is important to go at your baby’s pace.

Some babies will develop a food allergy despite following this advice:

Always stay with your baby when feeding them, to reduce the risk of choking If you think your baby may be having an allergic reaction, this happens usually with 30 minutes of having the food, stop giving the food and seek medical advice (call 999)

For more information on allergen weaning follow this guide from the British Society for Allergy & Clinical Immunology (BSACI)

www.bsaci.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/pdf_Infant-feeding-and-allergy-prevention-PARENTS-FINAL-booklet.pdf