As Head of Food Allergy at the FSA, I'd like to draw attention to an article published in the BMJ today, by researchers at UCL, that suggests babies might benefit from being given solids earlier than currently recommended – the research suggests that this is partly because weaning later may increase the risk of food allergies.
We welcome new developments in allergy research, and it is right to highlight to parents where there is scientific uncertainty, as the BMJ article does, so that parents can make informed decisions. But while the evidence base remains uncertain, suggestions to revise the current government recommendations are premature and are likely to only cause confusion to parents.
At present there is scientific uncertainty about whether young children should avoid foods that can cause allergic reactions to escape sensitisation or, instead, should eat them to induce tolerance and thus reduce the risk of developing food allergy. It's thought that there is a critical window of time during early life when the immune system is developing and this may be a key time for the development of allergies, but it's not clear how the route, timing and dose of exposure to food allergens during this period might influence whether the child develops an allergy or not.
The Agency is funding research to contribute to the evidence in this area and inform Government advice. For example, the EAT study is investigating whether the early introduction of allergenic foods to infant diets from the general population, alongside continued breastfeeding, could lead to a reduction in food allergies.
The Agency is also funding part of the ‘Learning Early About Peanuts study', which is a major clinical study being funded by the US National Institutes of Health. The LEAP study is investigating whether either eating high levels of peanuts from an early age or excluding them from diets of children at high risk of developing food allergies, is protective against the development of peanut and other food allergies. Any conclusions from this, or other Agency research on food allergy, will be published on our website: www.food.gov.uk
But in the meantime, the advice is clear: while the evidence as to why food allergies develop in infants is still uncertain, parents should continue to follow current government recommendations – which is to aim to exclusively breastfeed to around 6 months of age and not introduce any of the common allergenic foods (e.g. egg, wheat, peanuts and other nuts, sesame seeds, fish and shellfish) before six months of age.