Research from a team at King’s College London has found that giving smooth peanut butter to babies and young children could give lifelong protection against peanut allergies.
The study found that teenagers who ate it up to the age of five were 71% less likely to develop an allergy than if they weren’t exposed to it.
The advice from the team at King's College London is to offer smooth peanut butter during weaning, then regularly and in large amounts until age five.
It should be noted that those under five should not eat whole or chopped peanuts due to choking hazards.
This goes against earlier advice that many will remember not to give young children peanuts for fear of allergies.
New ideas about weaning and food for young children are appearing all the time, such as a rising trend of baby-led weaning. Here’s a closer look at the practice and what it means for babies and children.
What is baby-led weaning?
Baby-led weaning refers to the practice of offering babies only solid finger foods when they start on solids, encouraging them to learn to feed themselves from the beginning of the weaning period.
It skips over the stage of being spoon fed mashed or pureed foods. Instead, food would be provided in soft pieces that can be held in the hand and eaten without assistance – although supervision is still recommended.
The term baby-led weaning was coined in 2003 by Dr Gill Rapley, who wrote widely on the theme.
Some research suggests baby-led weaning encourages babies to regulate their own food intake, helping them to develop an innate ability to respond to cues for hunger and know when they’re full.
This could help them throughout their lives with self-regulation of food intake and lead to them having a healthy weight as children and adults.
When should you start baby-led weaning?
Although this will vary from child to child, the general recommendation is to start baby-led weaning from around six months old.
What is most important is that babies are able to sit up unsupported, bring food to their mouth, chew and swallow.
You’ll be able to see if those behaviours are appearing during play, with babies demonstrating by putting toes or dummies into their mouths, just as they would with food.
What is the four-day rule for baby-led weaning?
As with traditional weaning, it’s important to take note of how your baby reacts to different foods.
That’s where the four-day rule for baby-led weaning comes into play, where new foods should be introduced one food at a time and at a space of four days apart.
For example, you might want to introduce avocado to the baby on Monday and then wait until Friday to introduce another food.
This makes it easier to determine exactly how your baby is reacting to that food and know which food is causing a certain reaction if one appears.
