Children who weren’t introduced to eggs in the early years of life may be more likely to develop an egg allergy around age 6, new research suggests. To prevent risks, the study recommends introducing this food from the age of one year.
- Children who had no egg introduced into their diet at 12 months were more likely to have an egg allergy at age 6.
What if eating eggs regularly from early childhood could prevent allergies later in life? That’s what research presented at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting suggests that introducing eggs to the diet early is associated with a decrease in egg allergy.
The study was carried out from infant feeding and food allergy data (birth to age 6) collected from 2,237 parent surveys as part of the Infant Feeding Practices Study II. A total of 1379 participants had complete food allergy data for up to 6 years.
“We found that children who did not have an egg introduced at 12 months were more likely to have an egg allergy at 6 years of age.” explains Giulia Martone, lead author of the study, in a press release. Fourteen of 2237 (0.6%) surveys reported egg allergy at 1 year and 11 of 1379 (0.8%) surveys reported egg allergy at 6 years. Children with an egg allergy between the ages of one and six years had less frequent egg consumption at 5, 6, 7 and 10 months.
One of the most common allergies in the world
Introducing a food very early in baby’s nutrition to avoid the risk of allergy is a known method. For example, it is used to prevent the risk of intolerance to peanuts, one of the most frequent allergies in the world, just like that to eggs.
“Early introduction of the egg during infancy, followed by consistent and frequent feedings, appears to protect against the development of egg allergy. We are still investigating the optimal timing of egg introduction in infant and feeding frequency“, conclude the authors of the work.
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