Foods that Minbao is allergic to

Milk and milk products, eggs, wheat and wheat products, nuts, peanuts, soybeans and soy products, fish, shrimp and shellfish, mango/pineapple/peaches and other allergenic tropical/fluffy fruits.

When her best friend's baby just turned 7 months old, she wanted to give her a nutritional supplement, so she steamed half a bowl of whole egg custard and fed her two mouthfuls. Within half an hour, the baby's mouth turned red, he kept rubbing his eyes and scratching his neck, and even started to wheeze. He was rushed to the emergency room and was diagnosed with an egg white allergy. It's interesting to say that five or six years ago, the saying "Don't touch highly allergenic foods before the age of 3" was widely popular in the parenting circle. Now the latest allergy guidelines recommend that after adding complementary foods after the age of 6 months, as long as the baby does not have high-risk factors such as severe eczema or family allergies, you can try small amounts of high-risk foods as early as possible. Gradually building tolerance before the age of 1 can reduce the probability of long-term allergies. Both views are supported by clinical data. Parents can flexibly adjust according to their children's constitution, and there is no need to stick to one theory.

Don’t tell me, many parents’ understanding of allergies is still limited to “rashes”. I met a mother before. Her baby started to have mucus in her bowels repeatedly since she was 8 months old, and her weight gained very slowly. She always thought it was indigestion, so she tried several probiotics but it didn’t work. It took almost two months to realize that there was something wrong with the baby noodles she had just added. The baby was allergic to the gluten in wheat. After she stopped all wheat products, her stool became normal within a week. The manifestations of gluten allergy are really very subtle. Some babies may only manifest themselves by rubbing their noses for a long time and waking up frequently at night. Few people will immediately think that it is a food problem.

Oh, by the way, there is another pitfall that many parents are likely to fall into, which is allergens such as nuts and peanuts. Many people think that if I don’t give my children whole nuts, will it be over? Not at all. The crushed peanuts, walnut powder, and even nut ingredients in bread and salad dressing added to many children's snacks may induce allergies. Last year, I came across a mother's sharing. Her child ate a bite of a cookie with crushed peanuts in kindergarten. Her throat became swollen and she could not breathe. It took her to the emergency room for a long time before she recovered. Serious allergic reactions are really not alarmist.

As for the question that many parents are concerned about, "should we check for a full set of allergens in advance?", there is no unified conclusion in the academic community: one school of thought believes that the immune system of children under 1 year old is not fully developed, and the false positive rate of serum IgE testing is particularly high. Even if they are not allergic, the false positive rate may be found to be positive, which scares parents to avoid food. Instead, it is not as reliable as a food avoidance challenge test - which food is suspected of being allergic, stop for 1-2 weeks to see if the symptoms are relieved, and then add a small amount to observe the reaction. This is still the gold standard for diagnosing food allergies.； The other school of thought believes that if the parents themselves have a history of severe allergies and the child has had stubborn eczema since childhood, getting tested early can avoid the highest risks and reduce suffering. Both views are reasonable. If you are not sure, just ask two pediatric allergists before making a decision.

I have been doing maternal and infant science popularization for the past five or six years and have come into contact with more than a hundred Minbao families. There really is no cookie-cutter list of taboos. I have seen children who are allergic to eggs but are perfectly fine eating salted duck eggs. I have also seen children who are allergic to sea shrimps but can eat five or six river shrimps in one meal. There are even examples of children who are allergic to fresh milk but have no problems at all when drinking fermented yogurt. Really don’t block all high-risk foods at the beginning. When adding complementary foods, keep a solid food diary. Only add one new ingredient at a time. Observe for 3 days if there are no abnormalities before adding more. This is more reliable than any expensive test.