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Your Baby and the Sesame Seed Allergy |
 When your baby is showing signs of a food allergy, finding out which food is making her sick is a top priority. The usual suspects are eggs, milk, peanuts, shellfish or anything that mom or dad may have had allergies to in their lives. While allergies to other foods like bananas are soy do happen in babies, they are often food allergies that do not command our first focus when seeking to find the offending food or drink. But one common source of nutrition that makes its way into the diets of many babies are sesame seeds. It might be a surprise that sesame seeds represents the fifth largest allergen in infants. That makes sesame seeds one of the usual suspects for infant allergy problems.
Sesame seeds are such a common part of our diet that we sometimes don’t give them any thought. Of course, they very often work their way into baked goods like bread, cakes and muffins. But sesame seed can find its way into all kinds of commercial baby food products. For the baby who is not allergic to sesame seeds, they represent a very healthy and tasty way to add nutrition to your baby's diet from a natural source. But if your baby is allergic to sesame seeds, the symptoms can become a serious problem for the child and for mom and dad as well.
The types of allergic reactions your infant might have to sesame seed are quite diverse. They could surface as stomach and digestive track disorders such as stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Or an infant sesame seed allergy might surface in the form of hives or some other kind of allergic rash. An infant allergy to sesame seeds could also disguise itself as a sinus problem and produce running noses, headaches, congestion and coughing. That means that whatever the signs of infant allergy your little one is displaying, sesame seeds should be on the list of suspected allergens.
While many of the symptoms of an infant allergy to sesame seeds resemble other allergy problems, in some cases the reaction in an infant can be severe and terrible. In some cases, an infant allergic reaction to sesame seeds can result in anaphylactic shock or allergy shock. Anaphylactic shock can be fatal for a child. That one reason alone should be good enough reason to ban sesame seeds from your baby's diet at least before the age of one.
That instinct to take such a serious risk of a dire allergic reaction that sesame seeds represents out of the diet lines up with the recommendations of many experts in infant allergies. Health care organizations in Europe and Australia have put sesame seeds on the list of allergens to be taken out of the diet of any infant under the age of one. It is only a matter of time before the American FDA follows suit.
But there is no reason that parents of very young infants have to wait for the federal agencies to dictate that sesame seeds should be removed from the diet. Even if your infant is not showing any signs of allergies, it is always better safe and sorry. By removing any dangerous allergens like sesame seeds from your babies diet, you remove even the most remote chance of a disastrous allergic reaction that could suddenly make itself part of your baby's life. That is good parenting and also the best way to assure that you will have the peace of mind that your little one is safe from any possible exposure to an allergen that could be very dangerous to her.
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