Recent infant feeding guidelines recommend introducing allergenic foods as early as 6 months of age, as this can be effective in preventing food allergies in infants at higher risk of getting a food allergy. However, there is limited knowledge about how diet diversity affects the risk of food allergies.
A study was conducted to examine the effect of frequent consumption of a varied diet on the prevention of food allergies. The study included 2,060 infants. When these infants were about 9 months old, a food frequency questionnaire was sent to the parents. The questionnaire included questions about how often they ate 55 types of foods, and about the time they were introduced to 41 types of foods. Portion size was not recorded.
The results of the study showed that:
- Only 100 of the infants had a food allergy. 30 infants had more than one food allergy, and 98 of them had eaten the allergen before being diagnosed. The rest of the babies have no food allergy at age 18 months, the majority had been introduced to 4–6 allergens by that age.
- High dietary diversity at 9 months of age was associated with a 61% less likely to develop a food allergy at 18 months compared with infants with the lowest dietary diversity.
- Introducing 13–14 different food groups (potatoes, rice, pasta, vegetables, meat, fish, soy, legumes, fruit and berries, egg, dairy, porridge, bread, nuts & peanuts) at 9 months of age, regardless of frequency of consumption, was associated with a 45% less likely to develop a food allergy compared with introducing 0–10 foods.
- Significantly lower odds of food allergy were observed in children with eczema and children with no family history of food allergy.
- No association was seen between diet diversity at age 6 months and food allergy at age 18 months.
Conclusion: A diverse diet at 9 months of age may prevent food allergies at 18 months of age, especially if they had a history of eczema or no family history of food allergies.
