To wait or not to wait?

[Doj]

I am wondering if you could shed some light on this topic of to wait to give high allergen foods or not to.

My 3yr old has never had nuts/ peanut butter or seafood, but has been exposed to everything else.
When talking to my DR she said hold off on these until at least she can spell them because being exposed to something too soon could lead to allergies, maybe not these ones specifally, but something else.

Then my friend that just took her daughter to an allergist. The allergist said that there is new reseach coming out that said waiting too long is not necessarily the best thing because they bodies have never been exposed to it and therefore much reject causing an allergy

So what do I do? Do I slowly begin offering my dd peanut butter or seafood?
We have no allergies in the family that we know of.
What do I do about my 13mth old? when do I start offering her these foods?

Thanks

[ark]

If you don't have food allergies in the family I would say its fine.  My DS is 18 mo. and has had everything.  Just my opinion though.  Also, my Dr. hasn't said anything about not giving any certain foods at this age.  We were just supposed to wait until 12 mo.  I think no nuts, popcorn, etc. for choking reasons, but not allergies.

[Spectra]

I agree.  If you have no history of allergies I don't see why not.  Every where I turn it's either wait until they are 2, or start early or wait until they're 5.  For my daughter, she is my first child, and not having any history of allergies in our family we gave her peanut butter at 12 months and she still loves the stuff.

However, my son has food allergies, though not tested yet for nuts.  My allergist didn't bother testing as he said to not even THINK about nuts or shell fish with him until a few more years.  He didn't even want to talk about it as he said there is no use in talking about it until we start down that road. 

So, I think if she's fine with everything else I wouldn't worry about it, especially since she is already 3.  MY allergist told me we would talk about this when my son is about 4.  The research seems to change every month on this topic, go with your gut. 

[Jimbob]

I completely agree with previous posts. I really don't see any reason to wait under the circumstances.

Kelly