Abstract
AimTo investigate a possible association between children's current diet and parents’ reported avoidance of appropriate foods in the child's diet at the age of 10 months, due to fears of allergic or hypersensitivity reactions.DesignA cross‐sectional study.MethodsIn 10 randomly selected municipalities willing to participate, 686 children represented by their parents visiting the child health centre were enrolled in the study. From January 2015–January 2017, 440 (64%) parents completed a semi‐quantitative food frequency questionnaire concerning their child.ResultsThirty‐four percent of parents reported that they avoided introducing some food items due to fears of allergy or hypersensitivity in their child. A statistically significant relationship emerged between this reporting and parents wanting more information about food for infants and toddlers. However, the reported fear was not associated with dietary restrictions regarding actual feeding of the child.
Highlights
The World Health Organization (2017) currently recommends ex‐ clusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, followed by in‐ troduction of nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods together with continued breastfeeding up to 2 years and beyond
An apparent increase in food allergy has resulted in reconsidering prevention strategies aimed at the infant’s diet (Du Toit, Foong, & Lack, 2016; Gupta & Sicherer, 2017)
Recent research indicates that early introduction of potential allergens in the child’s diet (Du Toit et al, 2016; Netting et al, 2017), around 4 months of age while the in‐ fant continues to breastfeed might protect against developing food allergies (Smith & Becker, 2016)
Summary
The World Health Organization (2017) currently recommends ex‐ clusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, followed by in‐ troduction of nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods together with continued breastfeeding up to 2 years and beyond. Recent research indicates that early introduction of potential allergens in the child’s diet (Du Toit et al, 2016; Netting et al, 2017), around 4 months of age while the in‐ fant continues to breastfeed might protect against developing food allergies (Smith & Becker, 2016). Whether the age of introduction of complementary food as a means of allergy prevention should be 4 or 6 months has not been established Almost all parents and their under school‐aged children use these municipal CHCs (Statistics Norway, 2016). They provide ex‐ tensive, universally available preventive health care on a voluntary basis, free of charge (Norwegian Directorate of Health, 2017)
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