Grant: CIHR Fellowship

The Canadian Paediatric Society recommends that babies who are more likely to develop a food allergy (those who have a condition that makes them more sensitive to allergens, such as eczema, or have a close family member with allergic disease) are introduced to commonly allergenic foods, especially peanut and eggs, around 4-6 months of life and fed those foods regularly. This can help reduce the chance of developing a food allergy. However, research shows that some families may have difficulty doing this. The aim of our study is to find out what barriers and challenges families experience when introducing and feeding these allergens. We will be asking 100 caregivers of babies at higher risk of developing a food allergy (aged 4-12 months) to fill out surveys, questionnaires, and diet records at the start of the study and 3 months later. This will allow us to see how much of these foods babies eat and which factors are linked to how often they eat them. A group of 20 of these caregivers will then be interviewed to talk about the challenges and barriers they experienced and strategies that could help address these barriers. Findings from this study will help inform future development of new approaches to make it easier for families to give these foods regularly after initial introduction.