FROM: Sturgess, Frances Coulter TO:[log in to unmask] SUBJECT: solids/allergens DATE: 03-04-97 16:09 EST PRIORITY: re: solids--one term for infant food other than "milk" is beikost (!) and I thought we were talking about that rather than the physical state ie consistency of the introduced item. As to no ill effects, the arguments I;ve seen refer as much to developmental issues (readiness, ability to swallow without a nipple/tongue thrust) as to allergic ones, and then there's the whole business of nutrient balance. Granted, these little humans ;,) like all of us, are incredibly tolerant of a variety of insults, and survive them, (why the RDAs are a range, not an absolute indicator of how much vit b,c,d, etc any one person needs). However, giving cornflour or other starches changes the calorie to nutrient ratio, fills the kid up, potentially, without getting the benefit of as much "milk" (and nutrients) as he would otherwise consume, and leaves him wide open for contaminants that could get added in the process. I guess I need to get the quoted article re: no evidence for problems with cultural intro of beikost as early as one month and see if it endorses doing it or looks at it as "need more info". Otherwise couldn't we also say "no harm in giveing ABM" that early too? I have also heard from my patient care cohorts that they see an awful lot of "fat" babies who are being forcefed cereal to the point of compromised mobility and breathing in some of our poorer populations, "fat" babies being perceived as "healthier" (and this is 20lbs at 2 months, folks--and "forcefed" is cereal in the bottle--can't get your milk sweetie unless you take the cereal too):,< The whole IGA/Immunity business is very interesting, and like food flavors, may indeed predispose brfed infants to better tolerance of "solid" foods than ABM--I can't claim any expertise here--but we have also had many concerns about cow milk allergy, soy allergy etc with the artificial feeds, and to some extent with mom's diet. Perhaps the IGA or whatever in moms milk protects the infant from the proteins in Moms diet--is that what Dr. B's info translates to? (Whereas there are no competing protective factors in abm OR in beikost itself, so brfdg might be protective in that sense.) Reply to: (with inserts for questions)--TIA "Thanks for your comments . . . I really appreciate them. As for data on early introduction of solids predisposing to allergies, there are no data specifically concerning solids, and theoretically, I can't think of any reason why solid foods would be antigenically different from liquid or baby foods! (I do not either--my concern is Anything besides breast milk or breast milk substitutes, and I *think* that is the intent of the word "solid" if not the actual definition) Most of the studies you cite are relatively old and most of the literature looks at the incidence of "allergic" symptoms in breast fed versus formula fed infants. . . moreover, in numerous rural cultures solids are introduced in the first month of life (Hervada and Newman, Current Problems in Pediatrics, 1992) (Is the above a journal or a text? Are there page numbers?) and have been for generations and if anything, their incidence of allergic disease is dramatically less than in ours. (How is this incidence measured? In developing countries is the data that complete? Do the infants survive to be tested?) There is a recent long-term study suggesting that prolonged breast feeding (i.e. beyond six months) lessens the risk of atopic symptoms independent of whether the child is fed other foods. Teleologically, early introduction of foreign antigens makes lots of sense to me. In fact, many dietary proteins appear in breast milk intact . . . they are actively transported across the breast! This includes numerous cow's milk proteins. There is much evidence to suggest that foreign antigen exposure prior to weaning is important in development of tolerance to foreign antigens, and in fact, atopic disease may be a break in tolerance! IgA may be important in presenting foreign dietary antigens