By Will Boggs, MD

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Introducing cereals into the diet of babies before the age of 6 months does not increase the likelihood that they'll become allergic to wheat, a new report shows. In fact, a delay seems to raise the risk.

"Delaying introduction of foods may not be protective against allergic disease development, and perhaps may be the wrong message," Dr. Jill A. Poole from the University of Colorado and Health Sciences Center, Denver, told Reuters Health.

Poole and her colleagues studied more than 1600 children followed since birth. Only 16 children (1 percent) had confirmed wheat allergy at an average age of 13 months, the team reports in the medical journal Pediatrics.

Among the children who were first exposed to cereal grains before 6 months of age, four (0.41 percent) developed wheat allergy; the rate of wheat allergy was 1.8 percent among 654 children not exposed to cereals until after 6 months of age.

Age at initial introduction to cereal grains remained strongly associated with wheat allergy (a 3.8-fold increased risk when exposure began at or after age 7 months), after factoring in breastfeeding duration, introduction of rice cereal, family history of allergy, and history of food allergy before 6 months of age, the investigators say.

"Our results support continuing the current recommendations of first introducing cereal products between 4 and 6 months of age," the researchers conclude.

"We attempted to define if very early exposure (less than 4 months) also influenced the risk of wheat allergy," Poole continued. "However, there were not enough children with wheat allergy to make any strong conclusions about very early exposure."

However, she concluded, "Based on the data from the early 1990's, which showed that very early introduction (less than 2 to 4 months of age) of multiple foods was associated with allergic disease, we do not recommend introduction of cereal grains before 4 months of age."

SOURCE: Pediatrics, June 2006.

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