by Dr Pandula Siribaddana

Created on: August 25, 2009   Last Updated: August 27, 2009

The human body is in an ever evolving process in that it tries to identify potential threats to its existence and tries to eliminate them by launching an immune response. The immune response might be so exaggerating, that the chemicals released from its interaction can cause severe inflammatory events which are known as an 'allergies'.

The infants and small children are more susceptible in developing these allergic reactions because of the immature immune response and the bodies' intolerability in handling an external allergen at this time of the development. This reaction can be even life threatening in certain instances thus necessitates to emphasize the need to avoid such allergens.

There are several methods to prevent such allergies from taking place and several of them are being discussed in this article.

Exclusive breast feeding and continuation:

Breast milk is a supplement for the childs immune system till such time the immature immune mechanisms can take over. Exclusive breast feeding implies that the baby will be given only breast milk till 6 months of age. There would not be any additional foods being introduced to the diet and even water need not be given.

Because of feeding exclusively breast milk, the chances of the baby getting exposed to food allergens are extremely low and perhaps unheard of.

Continuation of breast feeding for at least one year has been advised by the experts to facilitate good immune response and to prevent the necessity to introduce allergy prone foods to a child before reaching 1 year of age.

Avoid the introduction of solids till 6 months of age:

Research has found out the best possible time to introduce solids to an infant is at 6 months of age. At this age, the infant will be able to tolerate additional nutritional supplements by means of solid food due to relative maturity of the immune system.

Therefore, babies should only be exposed to solids, preferably after 6 months of age.

Delay the introduction of potentially allergic foods till 1 year of age:

Cow's milk and eggs are potentially allergic foods and preferably should not be introduced before the child reaches one year of age. Even the introduction of these foods should be done very carefully and very slowly.

Introduce one food item at a time:

It is best to introduce one food item at a time to be able to detect any allergies for a specific food. Otherwise it would be impossible to identify the potential allergen among a mixture of foods given at the same time.

Introduce potentially non allergic foods, early:

Rice cereals and bananas are mostly safe in being non allergenic. Therefore it is best to introduce similar foods at the beginning to avoid developing a allergic reaction.

By adhering to this advice, it is possible to avoid most common allergic reactions that are encountered in infancy and childhood.

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