Advising Parents on Complementary Feeding and Food Allergy Prevention

Advising Parents on Complementary Feeding and Food Allergy Prevention

This education is about: * Guidelines for complementary feeding * Early allergen introduction for food allergy prevention * Best practices and clinical considerations for early introduction of allergenic foods * Utilizing allergenic foods to help increase diversity during the complementary feeding period * Caregiver counseling on early introduction and complementary feeding Why it matters: Food allergy is on the rise in the United States. Although ample evidence demonstrates the benefit of early allergen introduction to reduce the risk of food allergy in infants, implementation of the guidelines among the general public is low. Caregivers may be unaware of or confused by the guidelines or hesitant to implement them in daily life. Given that there is a “window of opportunity” for benefit with early allergen introduction—and this window closes fastest for the highest-risk infants—it is critically important that clinicians are prepared to proactively discuss early allergen introduction and support caregivers in following the guidance in a timely manner for all infants.