Facilitate Health and Exposure
This section focuses on direct measures that you can take to prevent allergies in your child as they grow up.
Early exposure to foods and nature
Exposing your child to food and environmental allergens while their barriers are in good condition leads to immune tolerance.
Starting at four months of age: 42
- Feed your child a diverse selection of foods, especially the nine major allergens
- Expose your child to environmental allergens
Early oral exposure to foods significantly reduces the chance of your child developing an allergy to those foods.
Early exposure to pollens and other environmental allergens helps your child to develop immune tolerance toward those environmental allergens, which significantly decreases their risk of developing seasonal allergies or Oral Allergy Syndrome.6
Oral Tolerance Development During Childhood
Facilitate healthy microbial exposure
Children exposed to a wider variety of bacteria are less likely to develop allergies. This bacterial exposure helps foster a healthy microbiome and regulate the immune system.43
Healthy ways to increase bacterial exposure:
- Feed your child probiotic foods
- Practice and promote targeted hygiene
A general rule of thumb is to maximize exposure to healthy bacteria while minimizing exposure to pathogens.
Interacting with Healthy Microbes
Prevent exposure to toxins
Children exposed to environmental toxins (such as pesticides, solvents, and air pollutants) have an increased risk of allergies.17
Healthy weight
Obesity in children increases their risk of developing allergies.34
It is vital to ensure your child maintains a healthy weight.
Healthy diet
Your child's diet needs to incorporate a few things to prevent allergies:
- An abundant supply of nutrients
- Fuel for a healthy microbiome (prebiotics and probiotics)
The Mediterranean diet or similar diet that includes a high intake of fruits and vegetables or a low intake of saturated fats and refined foods accomplishes this.
Luckily, many of the major food allergens will be part of a healthy diet for your child, so facilitating oral exposure will be easy.