Elaine wrote in message ...

As much as I would like my kids not to have any
allergies - I don't know that I really belive
that any of the food introduction schedules have
much science behind them. They seem to have about
as much science as studies on how to get your kids
to sleep through the night. Genes, unfortunately,
tend to win out.

I agree with your assessment of the research. I *did*
follow one of the special schedules, but I freely admit
that it was more so that if my son did turn out to have
a serious allergy, I'd at least felt like I'd done what
I could. The research is so contradictory and hard
to rely on that it's all a shot in the dark, so I picked
the bits that made some sort of intuitive sense and
did what I could. I'll never know if it made any
difference, either good or bad, but at least I can feel
like I tried.

Are the increases in food allergy incidence in kids real,
or is it better diagnosis, etc.? It really does seem like
more children have allergies than had them when I was
a kid, and if so, there must be some environmental factor
interacting with the genetics. I'm an allergies-eczema-asthma
person myself, with a strong genetic history for it, and my
mom did all the 'wrong' things - and I still don't have any
food allergies. I would think that if any of these precautions
made any difference, the situation would be getting better,
not worse.

Beth