One in every 13 children in the United States has a food allergy. Think about that statistic for a minute….that is a lot of kids! Just this February, we joined the statistic. Read more for how to use the Ready Set Food program for allergen introduction recommended by an allergy RN.
At 3.5 years old, we discovered our youngest has a peanut allergy… I couldn’t believe it! We eat peanuts in our house EVERY SINGLE DAY, I am a pediatric allergy nurse, no one on either side of the family has food allergies, he did not have eczema.
Yet, we were not excluded from the increasing number of kids with food allergies in the US.
Food allergies have become a serious health concern in recent years with the numbers rising to over 32 Million Americans having at least 1 food allergy.
Because the numbers are rapidly on the rise, a lot of research has been conducted to find out the best management for food allergies. This means the guidelines for allergen introduction are also quickly evolving; especially for high risk children.
Aligning with the new guidelines, Ready Set Food makes allergen introduction easy and safe! Keeping peanut in my son’s diet would have been much easier, and potentially we could have avoided an allergy, if I had known about Ready Set Food.
Ready Set Food is a guided early allergen introduction system makes it so easy to introduce and maintain exposure to top allergens in your baby’s diet, ranging from 4-24 months old.
It included powders that you can add to expressed milk, formula, or solids starting at 4 months old. Allergen introduction has never been easier thanks to Ready Set Food!
Their products are 100% organic and non-GMO, no artificial ingredients or additives in any of their products. Ready. Set. Food! is also supported by the USDA, NIAID, AAP, FDA, and AAAAI!
My favorite thing about this company is that they are working to make access to their products more easily available for everyone through donation partnerships with major healthcare providers.
Shop our entire Ready Set Food Line for all ages here.
What is a food allergy? A quick science lesson
A food allergy is a medical condition where the body’s immune system interprets certain food proteins as threats and causes an immune response (allergic reaction) to the food.
Food allergies are very serious and can be life threatening. At this time, there are no cures for food allergies.
Updated guidelines for allergen introduction:
According to the USDA 2020-2025 guidelines, “Potentially allergenic foods should be introduced when other complementary foods are introduced to an infant’s diet. Including peanut-containing foods in the first year reduces the risk that an infant will develop a food allergy to peanuts.”
The guidelines also state that for those infants who are at high risk (have severe eczema or an egg allergy or both) should introduce peanut into the diet as early as 4-6 months.
What is Ready Set Food?
Introducing allergens can be a scary process for parents with the increasing statistics and new regulations. Ready Set Food is an early allergen introduction system developed by physicians and scientists.
They have created easy, premeasured allergen mix-ins which can be added to bottles or solids, and whole snacks for older kiddos. The goal is once the allergens are introduced to keep that food in the diet 3 times a week to help avoid an allergy from developing.
This is where we fell short with our son and where we could have benefited from a system like Ready Set Food. While we introduced peanut early, we did not keep it in the diet as frequently as experts recommend and this is how it is thought his allergy developed.
Ready Set Food makes it easy to keep the adequate amount of allergen in baby’s diet.
Why Choose Ready Set Food for Allergy Introduction?
A HUGE benefit with Ready Set Food is that allergens can be introduced into high risk babies before they are ready for solids. With the recommendation being as early as 4 months for those kids with the above risk factors, it can be challenging, unsafe, and nearly impossible to introduce allergens early enough if the baby is not developmentally ready.
We run into this issue all the time in the allergy clinic. Ready Set Food solves this problem with their mix-ins easily dissolvable into your baby’s bottles.
Simply add a packet of Ready Set Food mix-ins daily to your baby’s bottle or purees.
The Stage 1 mix-ins introduce egg, peanut, and milk one at a time. When baby is ready for Stage 2, more allergens are introduced while maintaining the egg, peanut, and milk allergens.
As an allergy RN, something we stress in the allergy office constantly is maintaining allergens in the diet – it is crucial to hopefully avoiding a food allergy.
Ready Set Food follows this guideline and takes the thinking out of the process, easing families’ stress about allergen introduction!
Shop Ready Set Food and all of our allergen introduction favorites and resources here!
Ready to introduce allergens? Check out my Allergens and Your Baby webinar for detailed info. You can also book a food allergen introduction consult with me! I can walk you through step by step.
Other helpful blog posts:
- Allergen Introduction Calendar E-guide
- Why Natalie loves NozeBot as an allergy RN
- 8 ways to safety proof your home for the holidays
- Practical allergy safety tips for the holidays
- 13 best experience gifts for the holidays
- Holiday safety – book CPR now
- FPIES in babies – 5 things you need to know
- 5 easy finger foods for beginners
- 5 common choking foods
- Simple purees for beginners
