Avoiding Food Allergy Challenges for Your Baby or Toddler

As we mentioned a couple days ago, there are some new recommendations for parents on how to avoid food allergies.

In this time of change, what can you do for your baby or toddler to avoid problems?

• Eat an antioxidant-rich diet while pregnant and breastfeeding
• At least 5 fruits and vegetables a day but preferably 9. (Babies will eat a lot less – that’s okay, just keep offering
• At least ½ of grains from whole grain sources
• Include nuts and seeds at least a few times a week
• Choose most of your fat sources from MUFA (olives, olive oil, nuts, nut oils, avocado) or n-3 (fish, flax)
• Get adequate milk with added vitamin D
• Breastfeed for at least 6 months; breastfeeding through the introduction of foods might help reduce developing allergies to those foods.
• If infant formula is needed before 6 months of age,
• Use standard cow’s milk formula for children without any parent/sibling history of allergies
• For children with a family history of allergies, use a partially hydrolyzed cow’s milk formula
• For children with a known cow’s milk allergy, use elemental formulas.
• Delay introducing any foods until 4-6 month
• No need to delay introducing any specific foods, even in high-risk infants
• Offer a new food every 2-3 days
• Feed your children the same anti-oxidant rich diet for pregnancy and breastfeeding
• Focus on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and milk
• Limit “snack food” that comes in bags, desserts, sweetened drinks

To learn what to do to try to avoid a food allergies visit our website.


This article is part one of a three-part series this week to highligh Food Allergy Awareness Week 2010.

About our expert Rachel Riddiford, MS, RD, LD.
Rachel has been an employee of Dayton Children's since 2004. She is currently the Manager of Clinical Dietetics and works as an eating disorder specialist in the Nutrition Clinic. Rachel completed her BS in Dietetics at Western Michigan University, Master's degree at University of Dayton, and dietetic internship at Indiana University/Purdue University. She has also completed an American Dietetic Association Pediatric and Adolescent Weight Management Certificate.

New Recommendations for Avoiding Food Allergies

Big changes are happening with the recommendations on how to avoid food allergies in babies and children! Here’s what is new:

• Avoiding certain foods during the first 1-3 years doesn’t seem to help avoid food allergies – and might actually make them worse.
• Plus, while food allergies are on the rise, so are other (“autoimmune”) disorders where the body mistakenly attacks healthy parts.
• The list of the foods thought to be most likely to cause allergies is changing.
• That means allergies and autoimmune disorders probably are caused by things in our environment.
• Instead of limiting a baby or toddler’s diet, focus on giving antioxidant-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and nuts to build a healthy immune system.
• Breastfeeding decreases food allergy risk.
• Food intolerances occur far more often than food allergies and food allergy tests are very complicated to interpret. Work only with a physician and dietitian very familiar with food allergies.
• You can’t predict who will develop a food allergy.

To learn what to do to try to avoid a food allergies visit our website.

This article is part one of a three-part series this week to highligh Food Allergy Awareness Week 2010.

About our expert Rachel Riddiford, MS, RD, LD.

Rachel has been an employee of Dayton Children's since 2004. She is currently the Manager of Clinical Dietetics and works as an eating disorder specialist in the Nutrition Clinic. Rachel completed her BS in Dietetics at Western Michigan University, Master's degree at University of Dayton, and dietetic internship at Indiana University/Purdue University. She has also completed an American Dietetic Association Pediatric and Adolescent Weight Management Certificate.

Spring Food Safety

Spring is here and summer is upon us, which is the time for cookouts and picnics with friends and family. During warmer weather, it is important to protect our family and ourselves from foodborne illnesses (FBI), which are diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, yeast, and parasites in our food. Symptoms of FBI are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, head ache, and fever. Some bacteria, such as botulism, can cause symptoms that can be severe and life threatening, such as problems swallowing and breathing. To keep FBI away from your picnic, here are some tips from our pediatric experts:

• Wash hands with soap and water for 15 seconds before and after preparing food and eating.
• Cook meat to proper temperature
• Turkey Thigh-180°F
• Turkey Breast-170°F
• Beef Roast/Prime Rib well done-170°F
• Hamburgers-160°F
• Pork Roast well done-170°F
• Ham 140°F
• Chicken breast-170°F
• Chicken drumstick/thigh/wing-180°F
• Sausage uncooked-160°F
• Sausage cooked-165°F
• Venison-160°F
• Fish-145°F
• Egg dishes-160°F
• Seafood-145°F
• Leftovers-165°F
• Hot foods should stay above 140 °F and cold foods below 40°F. Use ice to keep foods cold and food warmers to keep foods hot.
• Avoid keeping foods out of the temperature danger zone (40-140°F) for greater than 2 hours or 1 hour if temperature is above 90°F.
• Never thaw meats at room temperature. Thawing food in the temperature danger zone creates an environment for bacterial growth. The outside thaws before the inside, which increases the outside portion to temperatures above 40°F while the inside portion remains frozen.
• Meats should be thawed before cooking, unless food package states otherwise. This ensures that the meat cooks evenly.
• Avoid cross contamination. Use separate cutting boards for raw meats and vegetables.
• To avoid insects from coming into contact with your food, keep your meats and other dishes covered.

Enjoy the summer and keep your foods safe!

About our Expert: Shannon Burkett, RD, LD, dietician at Dayton Children's

Shannon is a gradute of Purdue University with a BA in elementary education and a graduate of Loyola University of Chicago with a DPD Dietetics and Nutrition. She completed a dietetic internship at Miami Valley Hospital and worked at WIC and long term care before coming to Dayton Children's. Shannon has worked with the Hematology and Oncology population at Dayton Children's for two years. She also has certificate in childhood and adolescent weight management through the American Dietetic Association. Her favorite hobby is cooking. She loves trying new recipes and creating meals from scratch. She says, "There is just something that is so rewarding about eating a delicious healthy meal that I have created, without using prepacked, processed foods. It’s both good for my body and my family's health!"