Real life: Turning our baby’s food allergies into a learning experience

Being a dietician, I have always had a very special interest in paediatrics and throughout the years I have focused my work and research around the importance of nutrition in these little people.

Recently though, I have been promoted to being the mother of a beautiful baby girl and from the first moment I found out that I was pregnant, I knew that it was my responsibility to provide the best possible environment for my baby to grow up and develop in.

The benefits of breastfeeding

I was committed to breastfeeding and even before my daughter was born, my husband had to sit through numerous lectures on the importance and benefits of breastfeeding.

Since then though, I have realised that reading from textbooks and teaching is not the same as practicing, as just because breastfeeding is natural, it doesn’t mean it is always easy!

Breast milk has numerous advantages and the benefits of breastfeeding extend well beyond basic nutrition. In addition to containing all the macro and micro nutrients your baby needs in the first six months of life, breast milk is packed with immune boosting factors that protect your baby from illness. Studies have shown that stomach viruses, lower respiratory tract illnesses and ear infections occur less often in breastfed infants and are less severe when they do occur.

For the first six months, babies get all the nutrients they need from breast milk and considering how tiring those first few weeks were, it’s a big relief to know that at least when it comes to feeding your baby, you’re pretty much covered.

Introducing solids

Time went by so quickly and before we knew it, our daughter was six months old and it was time to introduce solids.

Introducing solids can be daunting: It’s now up to you to make sure that you are supplying a nutritious diet to your baby. It is a critical time to give your baby a wide variety of healthy foods and textures, both of these are essential to establish good eating habits.

Excited to start on this new milestone, we were shocked to find out that our daughter is allergic to numerous foods which was the last thing I had ever expected, since we have no family history of allergies.

Food allergies explained

A food allergy is an adverse immune response to a food protein. The last 40 years has seen a dramatic rise in allergic diseases such as asthma, eczema and hay fever, particularly in the western world.

The most common food allergens are:

• Milk
• Eggs
• Nuts
• Wheat
• Fish

Luckily many childhood food allergies can be outgrown.

Eating is such a central part of day-to-day life and therefore being diagnosed with a food allergy has a massive impact on the whole family. Care takers and family members need to be able to recognise reactions and know exactly how to deal with them when they occur. Food labels need to be examined in detail and parents or caregivers need to be educated on the terminology used to describe different food components.

The treatment of a food allergy consists of avoiding the food or foods that cause the symptom. It is essential to make sure that the nutrients present in the food or foods excluded from the diet are provided from alternative sources and to ensure an adequate calorie intake, in addition to macro and micronutrients.

Turning my daughter’s food allergies into a learning experience

Every dark cloud has a silver lining and I have taken this situation and turned it into a learning experience. Saturday afternoons will never be the same again, because this mamma is cooking up a storm.

From peeling, cooking, blending and freezing, I am enjoying preparing food for that little tummy, and with every “so ry die trein, so ry die trein…” and every bite my baby takes, I love being a mom and I know that I have been preparing for this my whole life.

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Bumbles Cookery Club

The Bumbles™ Cookery Club offers detailed workshops for each vital stage of the weaning process, as well a support and social group for moms to enjoy.

Our goal is to guide and assist moms, and dads, through the different weaning stages and to understand and learn the importance of each stage, when to introduce each food group and how to create delicious, nutritionally balanced meals not only for your little one but for the whole family.

Latest posts by Bumbles Cookery Club (see all)

• Use this mealplanner to plan your baby’s meals - August 8, 2014
• Baby weaning: The importance of savoury and introducing texture - August 7, 2014
• Real life: Turning our baby’s food allergies into a learning experience - August 6, 2014