Food Allergies And How To Keep Them Out Of Baby's Feeding Bowl

We break down the issue of food allergies and how to keep them out of baby’s feeding bowl.

Here comes the aeroplane,” you say as you dramatically and carefully navigate a spoonful of avocado mush into your infant’s hesitantly open mouth. Baby’s first foray into solids upon making the switch from a strict milk diet can be both an exciting and unnerving milestone for parents. Besides wondering how your little bub would take to a whole new world of smells and flavors, there is also the risk of food allergies to fret over.

An estimated six to eight percent of children around the world are affected by food allergies. For these children, eating certain foods would trigger an immune system overreaction that can cause anything from chronic itching and eczema to sudden difficulty breathing and even life-threatening anaphylactic shock.

While food allergies are less prevalent among our little ones in Singapore, with not more than five percent of children younger than 12 years old affected, according to the Khoo Teck Puat - National University Children's Medical Institute (KTP-NUCMI), childhood food allergies are a growing problem in many parts of the world. The incidence of food allergies in children increased 50 percent from 1997 to 2011 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013), making it a valid concern for parents as to whether it's possible to prevent or lower a baby’s or a young child’s risk from developing them.

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