Reducing allergy risk in UK infants

Reducing allergy risk in UK infants

With the increase of allergic diseases such as eczema, asthma and cow's milk protein allergy in your daily practice – allergy is now estimated to affect one in three UK children.

The best option to reduce the risk of an allergy developing is through breast-feeding exclusively for the first six months of a baby's life and delaying the introduction of solids until six months.

However, for infants with an increased allergy risk, whose mothers are unable to, or choose not to breastfeed, expert nutrition bodies recommend the use of a hydrolysed infant formula rather than a standard cow's milk or soya milk formula. Further advice from the Food Standards Agency emphasises that hydrolysed protein infant formulae are nutritionally better than those based on soya.