Should I Feed My Vegan Baby Eggs and Milk? (vegan kids and food allergies)

Should vegan parents feed their babies milk, eggs, fish, and shellfish to reduce the risk for food allergies?

Food allergy stats

Early exposure

Vegan perspectives

Should More Kids Eat Nuts?

0:00 Intro
0:36 The Stats
1:41 Early Exposure
3:02 What Do Vegan Dietitians Do?
5:11 What We Did
8:14 Allergen Oatmeal?
8:50 Offsetting
9:30 The Future is (almost) Here!
11:41 Outro

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[jessie]

Background Info: I'm not vegan and I don't have kids (yet, maybe?). But what I do have is a long list of allergies, so any of my potential children would be super high risk. With that in mind, even if I were vegan, I would definitely go the route of introducing all 8 major allergens to all my kids to make sure all the big stuff is out of the way. However, I acknowledge that most people are not high risk like that so either way is understandable for most people.

That oatmeal product seems really interesting, I think powdered allergen is a great way to do it that would also mean not having to actually cook the product if you're against it or disgusted by it personally. I'm allergic to shellfish, so introducing that to my potential child would be tough. I feel like a powder like this would be super useful, then my partner could add it to the child's food without causing me problems. I'm all for it!

[azigz]

Kids spread covid even if they don't suffer the side effects as often/severe as adults

[KoiraStar]

I know I was given eggs as one of my first foods as a young kid, and was given them regularly. My mom mentioned scrambled eggs being something that was super easy to give to a young kid learning to eat solid foods, because it was easy to grab and pick up and chew/swallow. In my late teens I realized I had an egg allergy. So, while I don't doubt the studies that say that exposure can help (obviously there is plenty of evidence that says it does), it certainly isn't a sure thing. I think that makes it even more of a personal choice, really.

[cockersplodie]

My allergy to strawberries began developing just as I entered into puberty and after eating strawberries all my life. It gradually got worse and worse, but the connection wasn't drawn until my first anaphylactic reaction happened at 19.

Neither of my children nor any of my grandchildren have a food allergy. I'm probably very lucky. When I was growing up, strawberries were a seasonal product. Not any more. I carry an EpiPen because strawberries are now grown year round and every restaurant and grocery store has them and very few know what cross contamination means. Life's a land mine. If I was raising kids today, I might well desensitize them. I honestly don't know. Severe food allergies may be rare, but for those of us with them it's a hellacious way to live, and the ease of managing that food allergy in today's world is debatable.

[anjiliveach]

Would fish oil supplements be an effective method of exposure to prevent a fin fish allergy? Because I can see giving kids small amounts of fish oil a few times a week, but actually cooking fish does seem a bit overboard.

[mieke]

Allergies are such a tricky subject as you can develop them at any point in life, I had this realization at 23 when I had a severe reaction to red wine due to the high histamine content. The longer products ripe the more histamine develops and things like aged ham, parmesan and red wine have therefore the highest contents. Which I found out with a trip to the emergency room. I never drank red wine but serrano ham, salami and parmesan were staples in my diet before I went vegan. Years later the lack of exposure took a toll when I got a bad rash all over my body and had trouble breathing

[cheystar]

I don’t have kids but I was raised in a fully vegetarian household. Needless to say I had never consumed any shellfish products or even been around them. A couple years ago I attended am event at a family members house where they were cooking large amounts of shellfish. The moment I went into the house I started chocking and turning. They asked if I was allergic to shellfish and I truly had no idea as I had never been exposed it. Everything turned out fine but I had gone my entire life not knowing I had any allergies at all 🤷🏻‍♀️

[leahlaprade]

My 18 month old is allergic to peanuts, cashews, almonds, and sesame. She's getting retested this month to see if any of those resolve (fingers crossed), but we're vegan and have been able to navigate this. It can be challenging sometimes, but we manage. And this was with me being aware of allergen exposure. Her first try of pb her whole face got beat red and first time with hummus we had to take her to the ER for face swelling. We did have her tested for eggs and dairy because it's just a good thing to know, but I didn't worry about introducing these foods.

[bela-sofia]

You are so reasonable and contained. I respect you so much.

[ebisk]

I feel like the arguement of 'your kid might not continue to stay vegan into adulthood' is a shit reason to desensitise a child to egg/milk 😬😬
Regarding offsetting - I have heard you mention this a few times and I love that concept! I have no doubt I will continue to be vegan for life but I have 3 cats since before going vegan. I donate to several sanctuaries/activist groups because I love doing so, but definitely helps me feel better about my cats consumption of meat😭 I can't wait until clean meat is on the meat because I will be instantly buying that for my cats no matter the cost!
Finally regarding preference or lack thereof to animal products - I always hated eating meat off the bone too! I refused to eat ribs etc. it grossed me out. My mom had a hard time feeding me any kind of animal flesh growing up, I just loved my veggies. Even into adulthood before going vegan I would very rarely eat cows, sheep, pigs or fish, it was mainly chicken 🥲 I was also lactose intolerant for ~7 years before going vegan so I pretty much never had straight cows milk during those 7 years. Going vegan was so freaking easy after I'd already been vegetarian for 8 months prior 😂

[enterflora]

I spoke to a dietician about this as my son had severe eczema, mainly caused by contact reactions to perfume, soaps etc.

She said the only allergens that need to be introduced early were peanuts and tree nuts. This was easy to add in a vegan diet.

I was concerned about accidental consumption of milk etc. but she said a severe reaction to dairy or egg would be very unlikely, and fish is usually easy to avoid as rarely a hidden ingredient. She said to make sure my kids are aware of the potential for a reaction to fish when they are older, given they may want to try it and would not have had it before, especially as fish allergy often starts in adulthood.

This was from a non vegan dietician who works for a National Health Service, so wasn’t based on moral arguments which I think are equally important.

[RachelBernholtz]

As soon as my kids can start solids, so 6 months, we give them Bamba. It's a peanut corn snack and kids love it. My friends and I call it baby crack 😂 My oldest is 5 and she still loves it!

[laurenmani]

A dietician made me feel awful and told me if I didn’t give my kids the non vegan allergens I would 100% be giving my kid an allergy. As a first time mom, I was so stressed. Logic told me that this didn’t make any sense, so my family doctor and another dietician told me it was fine not to introduce the allergens. Thanks for making this video- it would have helped me back in the day when that damn lady stressed me out haha. Love all the kid content!

[Borreguita]

not often I find someone who thinks that cars are super dangerous. I do, I find them to be potentially deadly, even more than guns. Of course, we can get into details, but as an overall idea, car accidents are that most of the time, accidents, sometimes just somebody hitting you from behind bc they got distracted a couple seconds, or somebody hitting you in the highway and your car ends up destroyed with you inside. As an accident. Guns, sure there are accidents, and can shot someone by accidents, but it seems that most of us have been in a car crash at least once in our lifetime, and most gun owners have never shot anyone by mistake or even purposefully as they have guns, just in case, and that case never happens.

[AdanyaDunn]

The thing about not liking animal products so much BEFORE going vegan reminded me that - I went vegan for 14 years ago, and I'm defs one of those who didn't like animal products so much to begin with. Of my own volition, I stopped drinking milk at 7 (just cheese products till I went vegan) and stopped eating eggs at 12. NEVER could do fish or shell fish / sea creatures (was extremely grossed out).... I recently got an IgG and IgE allergy test done, and I am NOT allergic to ANY animal products / proteins etc. (other things yes). Another awesome video - thanks for sharing!

[gaylenewood]

My niece when she was a baby back in 90s she was and is still allergic to cherries, nuts all nuts including almonds and cashews and other sorts and eggs milk but when she got older she slowly got over the milk one but the others she'll remain allergic cause some of them are life threatening like the nuts and egg..

[jcg]

Honestly, you also just never know. my older two vegetarian kids have no food allergies, but my youngest reacted to water down peanut butter the first time he had it, at 7 months old. You can plan on exposing kids to a food and they react the first time. It really sucks to have nut allergies in the family when you're vegetarian. my older kids love cashews and pistachios, and we try to limit them to eating them when the youngest is asleep, though maybe tiny amounts of exposure isn't the worst thing.

Random aside, but since you mentioned it, my youngest also tested positive for chestnut allergy.

[kikikara]

I’ve been vegan for a little over five years (and meatless for nearly seven years). I was VERY weird about meat before giving it up. My family used to say I was like a surgeon with cutting off the fat and tendons 🤢 I also hated eggs (only consumed them in baked goods) and dairy (unless it was cheese, butter, or ice cream). I actually started eating dairy-free ice cream (So Delicious Chocolate) around three years before going vegan. I didn’t like how thick dairy products made my saliva feel 🤢 I also was not a fish person, hated the texture of chicken most of the time, and refused to eat bacon (bc fat/texture). I always tell people I was destined to be vegan bc of my aversions to so many animal-based products lmao. I would love to see what other vegans had food aversions to pre-veganism

[CampMelp]

I have 4 vegan kids 5-13 and two have mild food allergies. I actually had been giving my second child dairy baby formula before he developed horrible eczema — that was actually the impetus for all of us ditching dairy for good. It cleared up immediately.

We’ve always been a little flexible in social settings, so my kids have occasionally had baked goods with eggs and dairy throughout their childhood. I expect it didn’t hurt them getting exposed as regularly as they might on a day to day basis out in the world.

It didn’t occur to me to give them fish to avoid fish allergies, but… que sera sera. Fish is gross.

[anon-mxjx]

I am mostly plant based for about 10 years now and I LOVED animal products before. Still do. That‘s why I never set myself the goal to be a perfect vegan, I am stricter at home and more relaxed with foods when I am away. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to be fully vegan because I loved the foods so much so I stick to a more flexible approach. But yes, I still love the thought of a thick steak with just a little salt, a fatty glas of milk, creamy blue cheese, soft boiled eggs, everything. It is really hard to not eat those things. But I actually feel physically unwell when I eat animal products now after all this time barely eating them. No allergies though.