Early Introduction of Foods for Food Allergy Prevention

The identification of food allergy prevention strategies has become an important public health issue given the increase in hospital presentations for food allergic reactions in young children. In particular, there has been an increasing interest in whether the timing of introduction of solids (particularly allergenic solids such as egg and peanuts) plays a role in development of early-onset food allergy. To date, research in the area has primarily been limited to observational birth cohort studies, which have generated data to suggest that delayed introduction of allergenic solids may actually increase rather than decrease the risk of food allergy. However, findings from these studies must be viewed with caution since it is difficult to eliminate the potential for confounding factors to generate spurious associations between infant feeding choices and food allergy risk. The emergence of a number of in progress randomised trials of early introduction of allergenic foods is likely to contribute significantly to understanding of this area as results come to light. This review discusses the current evidence for a role of early introduction of foods in the prevention of food allergy, including emerging results from the first clinical trials, and discusses the implications of these findings for population guidelines and for further research. © 2014, Springer International Publishing AG.