Schools
Moms Talk: The Allergy Conundrum
In this weekly feature, local moms pose questions to the community and get a dialogue going on a range of subjects. This week, we look at the chicken-and-egg debate over allergies.
Each week in Moms Talk, our community of readers like you take questions, give advice and share solutions. Moms, dads, grandparents and the families who make up our community have a new resource for questions about local neighborhood schools, the best pediatricians, 24-hour pharmacies and the thousands of other issues that arise while raising children.
Moms Talk will also be the place to drop in for a talk about the latest parenting hot topic. Do you know of local moms raising their children in the Tiger Mom's way? Where can we get information on local flu shot clinics for children? How do we talk to our children about the Tucson shootings? How can we help our local schools weather their budget cutbacks?
Grab a cup of coffee and settle in as we start the conversation today with this week's question. Provide answers below in the Comments box, and submit your own questions to me directly at jimw@patch.com.
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Q: I'm a new mom and I am feeding my baby all kinds of new solid foods and I am careful to feed her the RIGHT foods. I just went ahead and fed her dairy without thinking about the allergy possibility, but I came across this New Yorker article and it made me think about exposing her to more foods early on.
The rapid growth of food allergies - allergies to peanuts alone have doubled, for instance - among children in the last decade suggests that the conventional wisdom on preventing food allergies may be wrong. Until recently, experts told us to keep our children away from any foods like tree nuts or peanuts, now specialists have come to believe that early exposure may actually help prevent food allergies from developing. Should this make me want to give my baby a peanut butter sandwich?
