When can I start weaning my baby?

National guidance recommends starting solids from around six months, and never before four months. Babies develop at different rates — if yours is showing signs of readiness from four months, weaning can begin. For babies with eczema or an existing food allergy, BSACI advises starting from four months once they show signs of readiness.

Should I delay allergenic foods to avoid an allergy?

No. Delaying allergenic foods does not protect against allergy and may increase the risk. Once your baby is taking first foods comfortably, introduce well-cooked egg, then peanut, then the other common allergens — and keep them in the diet regularly afterwards.

How often does my baby need to eat these foods?

Regularly, as an ordinary part of their diet. This is the part most often missed. The protection seen in trials came from babies eating the food consistently over time, not from one introduction. Life happens and foods do drop out of the diet — the guidance is simply to keep them going regularly where you can. If your child has ever reacted to a food, speak to us before giving it again.

My baby has eczema. Do we need to do anything differently when weaning?

Yes. Eczema should be well controlled — ideally cleared — before allergenic foods are introduced. It is worth having a plan agreed with a clinician rather than starting unprepared, particularly if the eczema is not settling. If you would like to talk it through first, you can book a free 10-minute call.

My older child has a food allergy. Is my baby more likely to have one?

Not significantly, on the evidence — having a food-allergic sibling does not by itself raise a baby's risk much. What does raise it is delaying the allergenic food, which is understandably what many families do in this situation. If the worry is making weaning difficult, come and talk to us.

Can I give my baby whole nuts?

No. Whole and coarsely chopped nuts are a choking risk until age five. Peanut and tree nuts are given ground, as a smooth butter thinned with your baby's usual milk, or as a softened nut puff.

A happy baby in a highchair eating solid food, with food around their mouth

< Back

Weaning and Allergens

Book an appointment

Starting solid food is a milestone most parents look forward to. If allergy runs in your family, or your baby has eczema, it can also come with a lot of questions — particularly about foods like egg and peanut.

The advice on this has changed considerably. For many years parents were told to hold allergenic foods back. The evidence now points the other way: introducing these foods during the usual weaning window, and then keeping them in the diet, is the approach UK guidance supports.

Up to 8% of babies in the UK go on to develop a food allergy. That means the great majority do not — and for most families, weaning is simply weaning. This page explains what the current UK guidance says, what it means in practice, and when a specialist opinion is worth having.

A stethoscope resting on a desk beside hands typing on a laptop

Why the Advice Changed

The turning point was a trial called LEAP — Learning Early About Peanut allergy — published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2015.

It followed 640 babies who were at high risk of peanut allergy because they had severe eczema, egg allergy, or both. Half were given peanut regularly; half avoided it entirely until they were five.

Among the babies who began with a negative skin prick test, 13.7% of those who avoided peanut were allergic to it at five, compared with 1.9% of those who had been eating it — a relative reduction of 86.1%.

Among babies who already had a positive skin test at the start, the figures were 35.3% and 10.6%.

LEAP looked at peanut, and at babies at high risk, so it does not prove the same effect for every food and every baby. But it is the trial that changed the guidance, and it is why “wait and see” is no longer what you will be told.

Not sure where to start?
Book a free 10-minute call with our team — we'll help find the right next step for your child, even if that's not with us.

Baby being fed puréed food from a spoon by an adult

Book an appointment

When to Start

National guidance recommends exclusive breastfeeding for around the first six months, with solids introduced in an age-appropriate form from around six months.

Four months is the earliest point at which solids should be started. Babies develop at different rates, and some are ready before others. If your baby is showing signs of readiness from four months, weaning can begin — but not before four months.

For babies at higher risk of food allergy — those with eczema, particularly early-onset or moderate-to-severe eczema, or an existing food allergy — BSACI advises starting from four months once the baby shows signs of readiness, and introducing well-cooked egg first, then peanut.

If there are specific concerns or worries, seek advice from a dietitian or your allergist.

Which Foods and in What Order?

Once your baby is taking first foods comfortably, introduce foods containing egg (if egg is part of your family’s diet), then peanut, and then the other common allergens.

The foods that account for most allergies are egg, cow’s milk, peanut, tree nuts, sesame, shellfish (crustaceans and molluscs), wheat, soya, beans, lentils & peas.

Two practical rules:
• Egg should be well cooked. Reactions are more likely with raw or lightly cooked egg.
• Everything must be in an age-appropriate form. Smooth, mashed or finely ground, to avoid choking.

The Part That Gets Missed: Keep Giving It

Introducing a food once and then dropping it can affect your child's allergy-tolerance to it.

This is where our emphasis differs most from what parents often take away. The protective effect in LEAP came from babies eating peanut regularly over years, not from a single spoonful at six months.

The advice is clear: once a food is in and well-tolerated, keep it in. Little and often, as an ordinary part of your baby’s diet.

Two children with face paint playing outdoors with colourful balls

Foods to Avoid in the First Year

These are NHS recommendations and are separate from the allergy question:

• Honey — not before 12 months. Honey can occasionally contain bacteria that produce toxins in a baby’s intestines, causing infant botulism, which is a serious illness.
• Whole nuts and peanuts — not before five years, because of choking. Ground nuts, nut butters and finely crushed nuts are fine from around six months.
• Salt and sugar — do not add salt to your baby’s food or cooking water; avoid sugar and sweeteners.
• Also avoid mould-ripened and unpasteurised cheeses, rice drinks as a milk substitute, raw shellfish, and shark, swordfish and marlin.

If Your Baby Reacts

Most reactions in babies are mild. Knowing what to look for makes the whole process less daunting.
Immediate reactions happen soon after the food is eaten.

Mild to moderate signs:

- Swollen lips, face or eyes

- An itchy skin rash, such as hives

- Abdominal pain or vomiting

Signs of a severe reaction (anaphylaxis):

- Airway: persistent cough, swollen tongue, hoarse cry

- Breathing: difficult or noisy breathing, wheezing

- Consciousness: pale or floppy, unresponsive or unconscious

If you see any of the severe signs, call 999 and say you think it is anaphylaxis.

Delayed reactions build up over hours or days and look quite different:

- Gut: recurrent tummy pain, worsening vomiting or reflux, feeding difficulties, loose or frequent stools (more than six to eight a day) or constipation (two or fewer a week)

- Skin: reddening, itching, or eczema getting worse

Delayed reactions are easily missed, because the symptoms overlap with so many ordinary baby problems.
What to do: stop giving your baby the food they are reacting to, and get advice. Guidance recommends referral to a specialist allergy clinic for every baby with an immediate-type food allergy. This is exactly the point at which we can help — identifying what has happened, confirming whether it is an allergy, and getting the rest of the diet back on track.

Please don’t start cutting foods out on your own. Unnecessary exclusion can impact your child's health and makes the picture much harder to read later.

If You Are Worried Before You Start

Some families want advice before the first spoonful rather than after a reaction. Two situations come up most often:

1) Your baby has eczema. Babies with moderate-to-severe eczema are more likely to be allergic already — up to 30% to egg and up to 10% to peanut at the point of introduction, against around 1 in 200 in the general population. If your baby’s eczema is not settling, needs more than 1% hydrocortisone daily for over six weeks, or has needed a stronger steroid more than once, that is a reason to get specialist advice.

2) Allergy runs in the family. This is one of the most common worries we hear, and the evidence here is more reassuring than most parents expect: having a sibling with a food allergy does not, on its own, significantly raise a baby’s risk. What does appear to raise it is the delay that often follows, when families understandably hold the food back.

Either way, if you would rather go into weaning with a plan than work it out alone, that is something we are glad to help with — with one of our consultant paediatricians, or with our specialist paediatric allergy dietitian.

How we can help

Dr Tammy Rothenberg and Dr Emily Derrick are both Consultant Paediatricians as well as allergists, so they can look at the whole picture — the eczema, the feeding, the growth and the allergy question together.

Our specialist Paediatric Allergy Dietitian, Misbah Primett, handles the practical side: what to give, in what form, how much, and how to keep it going without it taking over family life.

Families usually come to us at this stage for one of three reasons: a reaction that needs interpreting, eczema that will not settle enough to start confidently, or simply wanting an agreed plan before introducing egg and peanut.