What were problem foods when you introduced solids to your baby, and

[Mary]

what were the symptoms? What caused allergies?
Gas?
Constipation?
Rashes?
thanks!
Thank you for your help, Angel, I have read similar information, but I was hoping for personal experiences?

 

[Angel S]

Symptoms  like hives, swelling, or trouble breathing  usually show up within minutes to two hours after eating a specific food. If your baby has a severe allergic reaction, it can be life threatening.

In some cases, though, food allergy symptoms  like eczema or gastrointestinal problems like vomiting or diarrhea  are chronic, or ongoing. (Eczema is dry, scaly patches of skin that show up on a baby's face, arms, or legs, but usually not the diaper area.)

Remember that your baby can have a reaction to a food even if she's eaten it before without any problem. So if she inherited the tendency to be allergic to eggs, she might not have a reaction the first few times she eats them  but eventually she'll show symptoms.

Keep in mind that her early exposures to the ingredient may have been when it was combined with something else  for instance, the eggs, milk, or ground nuts in a cookie.
It's possible to be allergic to any food, but these eight food groups are responsible for 90 percent of food allergies: eggs, milk, peanuts, wheat, soy, tree nuts (like walnuts, Brazil nuts, and cashews), fish (such as tuna, salmon, and cod), and shellfish (like lobster, shrimp, and crab).

 

[frogysue]

there are kind of two different issues here - one is a food _intolerance_ - which means your baby can't yet digest a food yet or the food is too acidic for them now. This causes gas, tummy upsets, constipation, or a rash similar to diaper rash (like a red area) around the mouth or bottom. These are usually outgrown pretty quickly - its just that the baby wasn't ready for a certain food yet.

Then there are _allergies_, which take longer to outgrow (or possibly aren't outgrown) and cause more severe symptoms like a bumpy-kind of rash (esp on the tummy, back of knees, or back, apparently), or in a severe case can cause vomitting or trouble breathing. These are the scary part of reactions!

Ok, personal experience........the only thing so far that my daughter _may_ be allergic to is fish. The day after she had some tuna, she got a bumpy red rash on the back of her neck and upper back area. It took about a week to go down. I assumed it was the fish, so we haven't really tried that again and won't for a while!

She has had a couple of bottom rashes when introduced to acidic foods - specifically tomatoes and cantaloupe. I just waited a few weeks and tried again, and they didn't bother her the next time.

When we first started solids she was just constipated for a few weeks from solids in general, not any particular foods. Pears and peaches actually naturally help that, so they were early foods I introduced. She also at times had more gas, but never like tons, and it never seemed to be linked to a certain food. I think especially when you first start solids,their stomach is still getting used to _any_ solid food, so too much of solids can cause gas. I never stopped giving a food because of gas (like i said, it was never severe), but it also never hurts to back off on a food for a couple of weeks if you are worried. Since this is more of an intolerance situation, a few weeks of the digestive track maturing is likely to elminate the problems for foods that are supposed to be pretty gentle to start with.

To go ahead and answer your other question too, my daughter did not have trouble with either pear or sweet potato. I would expect gas to be caused by something eaten just a few hours before (about on the same time frame as you would get a tummy ache from eating something that disagreed with you). So keeping in mind that babies get gas for all kinds of random reasons, I think the sweet potatoes are a more likely culprit than the pears. Like I said above, it never hurts to be extra careful and skip the sweet potatoes for a few weeks if you think they are causing tummy upsets. It doesn't hurt to not give pears for a while either, if you aren't sure. If you are going to worry every time you give her pears, then it isn't worth it. There are lots of other yummy foods for her to try instead (I notice neither peas, avocado or pumpkin is on your list yet ).

 

[Twins+1 YIAC!]

My kids weren't allergic to anything and never had a problem with food.

He is now over 6 months so he is getting some solids now, but I'm not doing one puree at a time thing. I make his food. He's almost always awake at lunch and dinner time and lately at one meal I give him stuff and let him self-feed totally and for the other meal I help him feed himself... or just feed him if I'm in a hurry. I am encouraging self-feeding, though. Other than that I am still nursing him on demand. I don't plan on doing 3 solid meals day until closer to 1 year.

I'm taking it slowly, like I did with my girls. I started them early on solids and thank goodness they were fine, but I did it slowly. Formula was their primary source of nutrition until they were a year old. I then went right to whole milk and cut it back to 3 times a day, then 2 times a day. Now we are getting closer to once a day for milk and they eat what we eat, with the family- every day. They are 26 months.