Should Babies at Risk for Celiac Disease Eat Infant Cereal?

If you are pregnant or have an infant that is at high risk for Celiac Disease, here is something you should be aware of. A typical child is supposed to start eating infant cereal at around the age of 6 months old. However, according to a recent study by the Journal of American Medical Association, it looks like children at high risk for Diabetes 1 or Celiac Disease should actually start eating cereal long before that.

According to this post over at WLKY:

They found that children who were exposed to gluten in the first three months of life were five times more likely to be immune to the disease than children who weren’t exposed until later.

“It’s been thought that delaying the introduction of gluten in the infant diet may have a beneficial effect with regarding to preventing celiac disease,” Norris said. “However, our study suggests that’s not the case.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies get only breast milk for the first six months of life, slowly adding cereal into the diet beginning at six months of age. The academy says that some babies may need food as well as breast milk as early as four months of age.

“A lot of factors go into making the decision as to when to introduce foods in to the infant diet,” Norris said. “A parent trying to make this decision should discuss this with their pediatrician to decide what’s best for their baby.”

As always, you’ll want to consult with your doctor before making a decision like this. I always recommend people bring a printout of the article in question (such as the one above) when they have that conversation.