Miriel Team · allergens, starting solids, food allergy
Offering Common Allergens at Home
How families add egg, peanut and other common allergens to meals: one at a time, at home, and earlier in the day.
Common allergens like egg and peanut can join your baby’s meals around 6 months, along with other first foods. Most families add them one at a time, at home, and earlier in the day.
If you grew up hearing that these foods should wait until age 1 or later, you’re not alone. Advice has changed, and today many families offer them alongside other first foods.
The common allergens
These are the foods families usually think about:
- Peanut
- Egg
- Cow’s milk foods, like yogurt and cheese
- Wheat
- Soy
- Tree nuts, like cashew, almond and walnut
- Sesame
- Fish
- Shellfish, like shrimp
Peanut grows in the ground and is a legume, not a tree nut. Peanut and each tree nut are separate foods to add.
How families usually do it
- Pick a day when your baby is well and you are both at home.
- Offer the new food earlier in the day, so you have the rest of the day together.
- Start with a small taste mixed into a food your baby already eats.
- Add one new allergen at a time, keep the rest of the meal to familiar foods, and wait 2–3 days before the next new allergen.
- If the day goes well, offer a little more at the next meal.
Once a food is going well, keep it on the menu regularly, a couple of times a week, as part of normal meals.
Easy ways to serve them
| Food | How to serve it |
|---|---|
| Peanut | Smooth peanut butter thinned with warm water, breast milk or formula, or stirred into porridge or puree |
| Egg | Fully cooked egg, scrambled until firm, or hard-boiled and mashed |
| Cow’s milk foods | Plain whole-milk yogurt or soft, grated cheese |
| Wheat | Baby cereal made with wheat, soft pasta, or thin toast strips |
| Soy | Soft tofu or mashed edamame |
| Tree nuts | Smooth nut butter, thinned and stirred into puree or porridge |
| Sesame | Tahini stirred into puree or yogurt, or homemade or no-salt-added hummus |
| Fish | Well-cooked, flaked fish with every bone removed |
| Shellfish | Well-cooked shrimp, minced fine and mixed into other food |
Whole or chopped nuts and peanuts, and thick spoonfuls of nut butter, wait until at least age 4. Thin the butter and stir it in so it’s easy for a new eater to manage.
Making it part of family life
- Keep a short note of which allergens your baby has had and how often.
- Cook familiar ones into family meals: egg in pancakes, tahini in sauces, flaked fish in pasta.
- Offer each new allergen at home first, not at daycare or a restaurant.
- Tell your childcare provider which foods your baby already eats at home.
If your baby has severe eczema or a known food allergy
Talk to your pediatrician before offering peanut or other common allergens. They can tell you the right way to go about it for your child.
If something seems off after a new food, stop offering it and call your pediatrician. If your baby seems very unwell, call your local emergency number right away.