As you all know, Nathan has terrible food allergies. It's been this way since the start for him, and in the last 7 months he's had a particularly terrible time with an all over body eczema and hives. He's lost many a night's sleep because the itching and burning is so bad, poor guy. Frustratingly, we can't seem to figure out what the cause is. He's restricted various food items, seen several doctors and a specialist, been on meds and other weird "pickling" treatments, and no one seems to be able to do anything for him. He's even seeing a Naturopath and is receiving Acupuncture... no results yet.
So we've been doing a lot of research. Of course a big concern is that Brenna is genetically at risk for similar problems. So far she is a healthier baby than Nathan was, but starting foods will reveal whether she'll have many of these problems or not. And that journey is supposed to start tomorrow according to Alberta Health.
So in preparation we bought a high chair off Kijiji, and have let her play with a few food items (the carrot, a bun, a grain of rice). But with the research I've been doing, we've decided to delay her going on foods for a while. I'll share what I've found and why we've made that decision, but first I'd like to rant about how frustrating our medical system is! Well, I suppose really that's a topic for another blog, but whhhhyyyyyyyy the refusal to talk preventative rather than simply treating a crisis!?!?
Well it turns out, after painstakingly searching and digging under many rocks (why can't the doctors just have a straight conversation with me?) there are some things we can do to help prevent food allergies.
First, my understanding of how they work: When the body is faced with an allergen that it perceives as a problem, the immune system kicks into gear and produces antibodies. With each repeated exposure to that allergen, more antibodies are produced until eventually you experience the symptoms of your body's immune system in overdrive. A person can develop an allergy at any point in life, particularly if they are overexposed to an allergen over a short period of time. For this reason, some doctors advise to eat a variety of foods, taking care not to eat the same foods too many times in a row.
For infants: Pediatrician Dr Sears explains it well on his website. Basically, newborns have immature intestines that allow proteins to pass directly through them into the bloodstream. This is by design for breastfed babies since this is how the mother passes her immunity on to her baby. The intestine starts to close up around 6 to 7 months but doesn't completely close until 5 or 6 years of age. When a baby is given solids before the intestine matures, the allergens from the food pass directly into the bloodstream and the body may or may not see this as a threat. So holding off on giving food for as long as possible is the best prevention, and after food is introduced, it's advised to limit foods that are known as being high allergens until 5 or 6 years old. And of course eating a variety of foods for the above mentioned reasons.
Dr Sears advises to watch your child instead of the calendar in deciding when to introduce solids. They can safely go up to around 9 months of age if being breastfed. When your child starts acting like she's hungry and can't get satisfied, and it lasts long enough that you know it's not a growth spurt, then she's ready for food.
So why does Alberta Health say 6 months? My guess is that it's a safe middle of the road number. While breastfed babies can go up to 9 months, formula fed babies are often starving by 4 to 5 months and need to get onto solids sooner. So why can't Alberta Health simply give us this information and let parents make individual choices that are best for their individual child? Instead it's a blind number that keeps a hungry formula fed baby off food (thus unhappy, stressed and fussing), while putting someone like my daughter at further risk for allergies.... right, that rant belongs in the other blog.
So we will NOT be starting Brenna on solids tomorrow. Instead, we'll let her tell us when she needs more food than just breastmilk.
PS Nathan thinks I have a strangely pronounced distrust of medical personnel... wonder where he got that from???
PPS (or is it PSS) I don't distrust all medical personnel. Just those who won't engage me in conversation and/or who discourage me from taking proactive measures in caring for my body and for my baby's body.
