title: Introduction of potentially allergenic foods in the infant's diet during the first year of life in five European countries.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little information is available on infants' age at first introduction of potentially allergenic foods as part of complementary feeding. We aimed to analyze age at the introduction of potentially allergenic foods in healthy term infants relative to recommendations in 5 European countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  Recruitment was conducted from October 2002 to June 2004. A total of 1,678 infants [588 breastfed (BF) and 1,090 formula-fed (FF) infants] were studied. In 1,368 infants, at least one 3-day weighed food diary at the age of 1-9 and 12 completed months was available.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six percent of BF infants and 13% of FF infants consumed some potentially allergenic food already prior to the recommended minimum age of 4 months, and 4% of BF infants and 11% of FF infants had already received gluten. There were significant differences in the timing of the introduction of potentially allergenic foods between the countries at the age of 4-6 months (p < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The time of first introduction of potentially allergenic foods in infants differed significantly between countries, and they were introduced much earlier than recommended in some countries. FF infants received potentially allergenic foods earlier than BF infants. Better information and counseling of parents is desirable.
authors.affiliation: Division of Metabolic Diseases and Nutrition, Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Sonia A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Schiess
authors.forename: Veit
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Grote
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Scaglioni
authors.forename: Veronica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Luque
authors.forename: Francoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stolarczyk
authors.forename: Fiammetta
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vecchi
authors.forename: Berthold
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Koletzko
mesh_terms: D000485:Allergens / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000276:immunology; D001903:Bottle Feeding; D001942:Breast Feeding; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015930:Diet Records; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005060:Europe; D005512:Food Hypersensitivity / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007225:Infant Food; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education; D010349:Patient Compliance; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens