one new food at a time?

[Marie000]

I am planning on doing BLW with my baby. BLW is unheard of here, so nutrition guides are no help. When speaking about purees, the guides always say that you should introduce one new food at a time for 4-5 days so you can tell if your baby is allergic. That seems silly. I tried to count the different things we eat at home, and it would take well over a year to introduce everything

Is it really necessary?
There are no cases of food allergies in my family or OH's family (that includes immediate family and our aunts, uncles, cousins...). I was thinking of going slowly with foods that are likely to cause allergies. For example, I wouldn't introduce peanuts and eggs on the same day. But I mean... how likely is it that she will be allergic to broccoli? Or rice?

I'm assuming BLW isn't really compatible with introducing one food item at a time. So how do you deal with potential allergic reactions?

 

[HPmum2B]

I think most people only introduce items individually in the beginning, but a TW and BLW baby are just as likely to have allergies. I only leave it 3 days to look for a reaction.

When LO is older (I don't know how old yet, as I have not got there, maybe 9 months, maybe a year), if I am trying her on a new dish, I doubt I will give her each ingredients separately first).

You don't want to overload them with new things in the beginning, as I would think it is more likely to upset there tummy, however, I do believe there is a 'window' somewhere between 4 and 9 months, where they are more open to trying new things, and its great to get as many different flavors in then.

 

[HPmum2B]

Although just to add, I don't think the one at a time rule is to help prevent allergies and reactions, its to help identify them.

 

[Casey3]

Silly rule. We've just offered whatever we're eating from the get-go.. He was eating (or playing with lol) meals with 10+ things from the start (spaghetti, fajitas, pilafs, burgers, hummus, tzakiti, pastas, roast dinners etc)

the slow introduction method is very outdated I believe

The only thing he hasn't had is nuts because both me and my mom are allergic... Even though my doctor, a lacation consultant and a homeopath have all told me to go ahead as he'll either have the allergy or not, age doesn't make a difference. But since we don't eat nuts I have just avoided it as it makes me nervous.

 

[albs]

We just gave DS anything and everything. I paid more attention to him the first time he had eggs and nuts, but the whole waiting 3 days before introducing new foods seems crazy to me. Like you say, it would take about a year to get through everything!