Nothing is comparable to the joy of being a parent. Having a kid is a significant milestone in your life, but many would-be moms and dads fail to realize it is also a worrisome endeavor.
After all, you are entirely responsible for another human’s well-being, and your decisions today can affect your child’s life.
Remember, during their first few years, your infant’s delicate immune system is still developing. It makes them vulnerable to various health issues, including allergies, making life more challenging and risky as they age.
Thankfully, there are measures to reduce their chances of developing these conditions and give your kid a better and safer life.
What are Allergies?
Allergies result from the immune system abnormally reacting to typically harmless substances (allergens). These reactions manifest in various ways, from mild itching and sneezing to hives and breathing difficulties.
In worst cases, allergic reactions take the form of anaphylaxis, a life-threatening condition requiring immediate medical attention.
Unfortunately, infant allergies are becoming more common. Take food allergies, for example. A 2022 study reports that 10% of children worldwide are allergic to a particular food—a consistently increasing figure.
Given that some allergies have minimal treatment options, it is necessary to implement prevention strategies to reduce their occurrence and keep your child safe.
How Do Allergies Begin?
Allergies begin for numerous reasons, but a critical factor in an infant’s susceptibility is their family history. If you, your parents, or other close relatives have allergies, there is a higher chance your kid would as well.
According to the Allergy & Asthma Network, a child is 50% more likely to have allergies if one parent does and 75% more likely if both do.
That said, genetics are not the sole root of infant allergies. Late exposure to food allergens may also increase the chances of allergies.
If you think your kid will likely develop allergies, consult a healthcare professional immediately.
Pediatricians, allergists, and immunologists can assess allergy risks and help you make dietary and environmental adjustments to reduce triggers.
They may also equip you with emergency allergy medications and devices, like an epinephrine autoinjector.
4 Ways to Reduce Your Infant’s Allergy Risk
Adopting the following strategies while working closely with healthcare professionals can help reduce your baby’s allergy risk, allowing you to give them a healthy start in life.
1. Breastfeed
You may already know that breastfeeding is essential for babies. Why? Breast milk is a powerhouse of nutrients that will strengthen their immune system, protecting them from numerous health conditions, including allergies.
To be more specific, breast milk includes:
- Proteins, such as lactoferrin, secretory IgA, and lysozyme
- Fats for brain development, absorption of vitamins, and calories
- Vitamins, including A, C, D, E, and K
- Carbohydrates, primarily lactose
Most importantly, breast milk includes antibodies that allow mothers to pass immunity to their babies, protecting them from viruses and bacteria and preventing food allergies.
In fact, recent evidence suggests breastfed infants receive exposure to allergens from the mother’s diet and environment, training their immune systems to recognize them as unharmful.
So, feed your child human milk as much as possible. Healthcare experts recommend exclusive breastfeeding during their first six months of life, then the 12 months after with other food, for up to two years and beyond.
2. Introduce allergenic foods
After exclusive breastfeeding for six months after birth, it is time to transition your infant to a diet that includes solid foods.
This period introduces them to new tastes, textures, proteins, and compounds, exposing them to potential food allergens and making them less likely to be allergic in the future.
Foods that could trigger allergies include:
- Sesame
- Milk
- Eggs
- Fish
- Shellfish
- Tree nuts
- Wheat
To reinforce this claim, let us refer to the Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) paper in 2015. It followed over 600 children and found that those who ate peanuts as infants had a lower chance—more than 80%—of developing peanut allergies than those who avoided them.
It demonstrated that early introduction to allergenic food is crucial to a child’s immune system development in the long term.
3. Avoid high-risk foods
Although it is crucial to introduce your infant to solid foods, you must also balance a holistic diet to strengthen their immune systems while being cautious about potential allergens.
After all, you would not want to inadvertently trigger an allergy they might already have that you are unknowledgeable of.
For example, we have mentioned that allergies are partly hereditary—a child has a high chance of developing an allergy if a parent has it and an even higher one if both do. So, consider your family’s allergy history.
If you are allergic to tree nuts, avoid introducing them to your child without medical supervision and emergency medications nearby.
Thankfully, you would not have to live in fear of potentially triggering your kid’s allergy.
Allergists can perform skin tests, which involve placing food allergen extracts on your child’s skin to study if they will react.
It will inform you about what foods are risky and otherwise to help you plan your infant’s diet accordingly and keep them safe.
4. Practice a healthy lifestyle
Finally, take a holistic approach encompassing your entire family’s lifestyle to prevent infant allergies.
Beyond focusing on your child’s diet and environment, consider your broader habits and practices influencing their vulnerability to allergies.
Is anyone in your household a smoker? If so, note that exposure to environmental irritants increases your infant’s risk of health issues that would undermine their immune system, leading to allergies.
A recent study from Taiwan supports this claim, finding that early exposure to tobacco smoke and molds gave children a higher risk of asthma.
Moreover, give your kid a balanced diet. Remember, they must exclusively consume breastmilk for the first six months of their life for optimum nutrition and defense against microbes.
When you finally introduce solid foods, support their developing immune system with a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, healthy fats, and lots of water.
Reinforce Your Baby’s Immunity
A crucial part of parenthood is ensuring your infant’s health and well-being, including preventing infant allergies.
As you may know, allergies tend to last a lifetime. So, preventing them early allows your kid to live a healthy life without worry.
Each strategy we have discussed is essential in reducing your baby’s allergy risk, so consider them throughout your journey as a parent.
Implementing them gives your child the best possible start in life with a resilient immune system.
Most importantly, do not hesitate to consult a pediatrician and other healthcare professionals to learn more about allergies and how to keep your little one safe.
