If you are a parent who has just started giving solids to your few months old baby, you are probably reading this because you are eager to know which the most common food allergies in infants are? If you also want to find out all about the countries with highest food allergies, please read our article 7 countries with highest food allergies.
Before we present our list of the most common food allergies in infants, we will explain what a food allergy is. When an infant tastes some kind of solid food for the first time, sometimes we can expect an adverse reaction to that particular food. What is an adverse reaction? Instead of chewing the food and eating it, an infant has inadequate symptoms. Parents need to know which are the most common food allergies in infants, so they could be careful when introducing these foods to their infants. Especially if there is someone in the family who already has a food allergy or any other kind of allergic conditions, like asthma or atopic dermatitis. In the past 15 years, the number of infants who developed food allergies actually increased, and it is good to know that we are talking about the food that other people eat every day! Imagine that you can not give chicken eggs or milk to your infant, or even fruits and vegetables!
So, what you are probably wondering now is what’s the best way to introduce solid foods to your child and avoid an adverse reaction? Don’t worry, there is a lot of recommendations from World Health Organization and World Allergy Organisation when can you introduce all kinds of food to your infant. None of these recommendations guarantee that your child won’t develop an allergic reaction, but they are based on the long-term researches which try to predict when is the best time for each of these foods to be given. First of all, you shouldn’t introduce any kind of solid foods to your infant before five or six months of age. Their bodies are still not ready for eating and chewing solid food, at least not before they start sitting properly. How do you know that your child is ready? An infant should start sitting and start showing that the food on the table is interesting! He/she starts to play with the food and tries to put it in the mouth. What happens next is that the child is learning how to safely chew the food and eat it. Trust me, you will always remember the thrill and the happiness in your children’s eyes every time they taste something new! Apart from enjoying in all the mess and fun of feeding your infant, you should carefully watch if there is some unwanted reaction!
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We will mention some of allergic reactions to solid food your child may develop. Your infant may start vomiting undigested food, or get diarrhea. An infant may start swelling or coughing; sometimes infants even lose their consciousness. If this happens, call your child’s pediatrician right away!
If some unwanted reaction occurs, it’s comforting to know that some of the food allergies children just overgrow. So if your infant develops an allergy to some food, be patient and wait because the child might just outgrow it. Your pediatrician will explain to you when is the best for you to try giving the same food again to your child.
We made our list by carefully researching the current recommendations from World Health Organization (WHO), World Allergy Organization (WAO) and The American Academy of Pediatrics (APP) which kind of solid foods often cause the food allergy in infants.
Here are the foods that cause most common food allergies in infants:
