What order should you feed allergens the first time?

By: Professor Carina Venter

GrowHappy ImmunoNutrition Squad Member

Professor in Pediatric Allergy at the University of Colorado and Children’s Hospital Colorado 
Author of the European, American and Canadian allergy prevention guidelines
Chair, Immunomodulation and Nutrition - European Academy of Asthma Allergy and Clinical Immunology

The most important thing is that you get milk, egg, and nuts in as soon as your baby can eat solids. The 5 GrowHappy ImmunoButters (egg, peanut, cashew, walnut, sesame) were specifically designed to provide a good starting point for allergen introduction. 

While there is no one right way to introduce these foods, we have some suggestions to help you out. 

Some say to start with adding egg because that is often the first food allergy that babies acquire in infancy. Then you might add peanut because it is a top three allergen that often comes with a life-long diagnosis. You could then do milk to introduce that top third allergen. The EAT study suggests milk protein as yogurt is one of the easiest first foods, followed not far behind by peanut. But don’t stop there! Follow on with cashew, walnut and sesame.  The GrowHappy Allergen ImmunoButter Variety Box has 5 of these allergens in there in the amounts that research suggests your child should eat every week. We chose not to include the milk allergen in our range because we want to encourage you to mix our Allergen ImmunoButters™ with fresh, gut friendly microbes with plain, unsweetened yogurt, so make sure to do that once you have fed each of these allergens a few times and can start mixing allergens with confidence. Every day you should be adding a new allergen into the mix. Have fun and try to enjoy this empowering experience where you take control and follow the science to do what’s right for your child! 

It is important to listen to your baby’s cues. If your baby pushes the spoon away, shuts their mouth or turns their head away, they have had enough. Try again later in the day or the next day.

First week of feeding allergens with GrowHappy Allergen ImmunoButters™ example: This is just a suggestion, feeding should be fun, and we do not want families to get fixated on a calendar… Try to explore a new allergen every day and build repetition for Early & Often™. 

Comings Soon: Our GrowHappy Diet Diversity Guide for how to feed our 7 month+ child with at least 30 plant-based foods and including 9 food allergens and protein sources from fish, poultry, beef, pork, lentils, nuts, soy.