Study shows introducing solid foods at the right age can stave off allergies
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By Mark Andersen/Lincoln Journal Star
Feed solid foods to your infant and she’ll sleep through the night.
That’s the advice given to exhausted new mothers.
Feed them solid foods between 4 months and 6 months — never before 4 months. That’s the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Nutrition talking.
Give nothing but breast milk for the first 6 months, says advice from the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Breastfeeding. It points to studies that find infants who get solids too early have a greater chance of developing food allergies.
Childhood allergies sometimes grow into adult allergies. Sometimes there’s a grouping of allergies, eczema and asthma. Some allergies, like to nuts, are dangerous.
Now comes a study in the June issue of Pediatrics suggesting maybe it’s best to feed infants solids after four months rather than six.
In the study, babies given cereal after four months had fewer wheat allergies, said Dr. Jill Poole, assistant professor in the pulmonary, critical care, sleep and allergy section of the Department of Internal Medicine at University of Nebraska Medical Center. Poole is lead author of “Timing of Initial Exposure to Cereal Grains and the Risk of Wheat Allergy.”
In a study of 1,612 Colorado children, Poole said, 16, or 1 percent, developed wheat allergies. Of the 16, four were introduced to cereal before they were 6 months old. The others got cereal after six months.
“We found the odds striking — almost four times as many babies in the group which delayed introduction of solid food got wheat allergies,” she said.
The folks at Lincoln’s Milkworks, which advocates breast-feeding, think the findings are interesting, but possibly a distraction from what they believe is a more important consideration.
“I’d much rather people get excited about making sure human babies get human milk when they’re meant to rather than when to start complementary foods,” said Dr. Kathy Leeper, Milkworks medical director.
Leeper said it was of greater concern to her that many babies receive formula during their first four months rather than solids after four months.
“There are very few babies exclusively breast-fed at 4 months of age,” she said.
Breast milk protects infants against infections, modulates their immune systems and promotes maturation of the intestines. It helps protect against Type 1 diabetes and childhood leukemia.
“The whole area of infant food allergies isn’t well understood,” Leeper said.
The findings of this study, she said, need to be checked by a larger study.
Poole said her analysis factored for breast-feeding, and it made no difference.
Between 3 percent and 6 percent of all children develop a food allergy, usually to one of six foods: eggs, milk, shellfish, peanuts, soy or wheat.
“We don’t know why,” Poole said.
Rates vary by region and ethnicity, suggesting possible environmental or cultural factors.
The United States has seen a large increase in infant food allergies over the past 20 years, Poole said.
Again, “We don’t have the answers.”
In the 1990s, studies showed children who received solids before four months had increased allergies. So in an attempt to slow the trend, allergists promoted delaying the introduction of solid foods.
The thought was that the immune system of an infant needs to mature before it can deal with food proteins.
Immune systems have to distinguish between many proteins, good and bad. Proteins also form the outer layers of viruses and bacteria.
An allergy or autoimmune disorder like Type 1 diabetes results when the immune system views a good protein as an attacker.
Poole’s study focused on feeding solids to infants between months four and six.
“Obviously, there is the benefit of breast-feeding,” she said, although her study showed some indication that breast-feeding longer than six months might actually increase the odds of allergy.
Her study doesn’t attempt to explain why it’s better to introduce solids after four months. Poole hypothesized that as the immune system develops it needs to see food proteins at certain times. There’s a window of opportunity for the immune system to correctly identify which food proteins are good.
European studies have found similar results, she said.
In Israel, where infants younger than 6 months eat peanut snacks, rates of peanut allergies are among the lowest anywhere.
“It calls into question what we’re recommending and what we should be doing,” Poole said.
She emphasized that her study looked only at wheat allergies.
“We need to look at other foods, like peanuts, and find out when is it a good time to introduce peanuts into the diet. Because that’s the one that’s killing kids.”
This study gives parents opportunities to feed children solids between 4 and 6 months, she said, but added that breast-feeding has a lot of benefits.
“I don’t know why one would preclude the other.”
Reach Mark Andersen at 473-7238 or mandersen@journalstar.com.
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