The First Few Foods For A FPIES Baby

What should I feed my baby first? Anything high in iron! After 6 months, baby's iron needs go up dramatically.

Iron rich foods:
Animal sources - beef, shrimp, fish, eggs, lamb, chicken, turkey, duck, pork

Plant sources - tofu, quinoa, nuts, seeds, lentils, legumes, fortified cereals, amaranth, teff, seaweed

Some of these foods fall under the "high" risk category for FPIES (eg. soy, egg, fish, chicken). Keep in mind that just because the food is labelled "high risk" does not mean that your baby will react to it. The level of "risk" describes how likely the food tends to be a culprit in a GROUP of babies. It is not very good at predicting whether or not your baby will react to it. The only way to know for sure is to offer the food to baby.

New guidelines also suggest offering peanut-containing foods to baby within 4-6 months to reduce risk of IgE mediated peanut allergy. Here is how you can offer peanut safely:
- Peanut butter thinned with breastmilk/formula
- Peanut butter spread thinly on a cracker or finger (Caution: you finger may be a casualty!)
- Finely ground peanuts mixed in with fruit puree, baby cereal, pancakes, yogurt or meat patties

Corn is another food that is top on my list. Why? Because every frigging thing has corn. Even baby Tylenol and Pedialyte contain corn derivatives. So it is one of the first few things I like to rule out. The last thing I need is to find out that my baby is FPIES to corn while the baby is sick. Or being unsure if symptoms are due to an illness or a reaction to FPIES.