Parents have many stressors and fears when starting solids: the mess, what to give, how to give it, schedules, gagging and choking, and allergies. The fear of allergies can make parents AVOID giving allergenic foods when that can actually be more of a detriment. I welcome Malina Malkani, a pediatric registered dietitian, mom of three, and author of the new book, Safe and Simple Food Allergy Prevention.

 

We discuss:

• Parental fears surrounding food allergies and how to overcome this
• How we can reduce the risk of food allergies in babies
• What it means to introduce allergenic foods early, often, and consistently

 

To connect with Malina Malkani follow her on Instagram @healthy.mom.healthy.kids, check out all her resources at https://www.malinamalkani.com/. Get Malina’s new book (pre-order until release on 11/12/24) Safe and Simple Food Allergy Prevention: A Baby-Led Feeding Guide to Starting Solids and Introducing Top Allergens.

 

Read about the LEAP study research from The New England Journal of Medicine and Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) .

 

Our podcasts are also now on YouTube. If you prefer a video podcast with closed captioning, check us out there and subscribe to PedsDocTalk TV.

 

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on the PedsDocTalk Podcast Sponsorships page of the website.

00;00;00;03 – 00;00;32;14
Malina Malkani
We can get those allergens in orally, early and often and sort of train the immune system that those proteins are safe. Then there’s less of a risk of the allergy, from the food allergy for developing. But I think it’s really important for pet for all parents to not make the mistake of thinking that food allergy prevention during infant feeding is only for those high risk babies, for babies with your eczema, because about a quarter of babies who develop food allergy never even had eczema to begin with.

00;00;32;21 – 00;00;52;02
Dr. Mona
Welcome back to the PedsDocTalk podcast. I am Doctor Mona, your host of this show. Thank you so much for tuning in. Every week. This show has been doing incredible in 2024 and that is due to you the way you share the podcast on social media with friends. You keep tuning in. Thank you so much for being here.

00;00;52;02 – 00;01;14;24
Dr. Mona
And before we get into the conversation, I want to remind you that I am a US based pediatrician and we are in election season. And at the time of this recording of the introduction, I don’t know who has won this pivotal election. And so many of you have mentioned to me on my social media handle, Pete’s Dog Talk, that you have election anxiety and so do I.

00;01;14;24 – 00;01;40;27
Dr. Mona
So election season can bring a roller coaster of emotion. But one thing’s for sure that no matter who wins, our kids will still need us to be their steady presence. Parenting doesn’t stop, but it’s okay to communicate how you’re feeling. If you’re happy with the results, share it. Be excited. And if you’re feeling visibly disappointed by election results, it’s okay to be open with your kids in a way that’s age appropriate and reassuring.

00;01;40;27 – 00;01;58;29
Dr. Mona
You might say something like, I’m feeling a bit sad because I was really hoping things would turn out differently. Sometimes grown ups feel sad too, when things don’t go the way that they hoped. But what’s most important is that we keep working to make good things happen in our lives and for other people. Then you can steer the conversation towards hope and action.

00;01;59;02 – 00;02;17;28
Dr. Mona
Even when things don’t go as planned, we can still make a difference by being kind, helping each other, and standing up for what’s right and adding any other value. Systems that are important for your family. We can do little things every day to make our home and community a better place. I want you to uplift your child no matter what happens with this election.

00;02;18;00 – 00;02;40;18
Dr. Mona
This approach helps kids see that sadness or disappointment is natural, but that resilience and hope are choices that we make. Even when things feel hard. It reassures them that no matter what their family remains a safe, stable place. Whether the candidate we wanted wins or loses, we can model what it looks like to stay hopeful and kind. And I hope those are your values systems as well.

00;02;40;20 – 00;03;01;21
Dr. Mona
We can talk to them about respecting other’s choices and focusing on how we can make a difference in our own family and community, and how we can continue to show up in democracy at the end of the day, no matter who wins, our biggest job remains the same showing up for our kids and reminding them that they are loved, that there’s kindness and that there’s resiliency and politics will come and go.

00;03;01;21 – 00;03;21;18
Dr. Mona
And the impact we make in our child’s life lasts forever. They’re watching us to learn how to handle highs and lows, how to stay hopeful even when things don’t go our way. So let’s be there. Steady presence. Be excited if you are excited with the results. If you are not excited with the results, it’s okay to be kind and honest with what you’re feeling.

00;03;21;20 – 00;03;44;02
Dr. Mona
I hope you have a joyous week and let’s get to today’s episode! Today I’m joined by Melina McCarney, a pediatric registered dietitian, author, and single mom of three who’s passionate about helping parents feed their children with confidence. Melina’s new book, Safe and Simple Food Allergy Prevention, dives into practical strategies for reducing the risk of food allergies during infancy and raising adventurous eaters.

00;03;44;04 – 00;04;01;10
Dr. Mona
In this episode, we’ll explore ways to introduce allergen safely, identify allergy risk, and make family mealtime both enjoyable and allergy conscious. Remember, if you want a copy of her new book to enter our giveaway on my Instagram handle, Pete’s Dog Talk. Let’s get to it! Thank you so much for joining me today, Melina.

00;04;01;13 – 00;04;07;05
Malina Malkani
Oh, thank you for having me. I’m a big, big fan of your content for many years and am I?

00;04;07;05 – 00;04;13;02
Dr. Mona
And congratulations, you have a new book out, Safe and Simple Food Allergy Prevention. It’s out now, right?

00;04;13;04 – 00;04;14;02
Malina Malkani
I do.

00;04;14;02 – 00;04;18;17
Malina Malkani
I do is my my book baby. Hey, it is a.

00;04;18;17 – 00;04;29;07
Dr. Mona
Labor of love to create those books. So tell us more about your why. You know, why you love the work that you do, and maybe some inspiration about why you wrote that book about allergies.

00;04;29;07 – 00;04;51;10
Malina Malkani
Absolutely. In terms of my why, there’s really two when I think about it, you mentioned before, I’m a single mom of three girls. The girls were all born within about three and a half years of each other, and they’re a little older now. They’re doing great now. But but when they were born, when they were babies at the time, it really seemed like we were struggling with just about every feeding related.

00;04;51;10 – 00;04;53;26
Malina Malkani
Issue that comes down the pike. And we.

00;04;53;27 – 00;05;28;03
Malina Malkani
You know, looking back, we weren’t, but it certainly felt that way to me in the moment. From colic to problem, reflux, trouble gaining weight, low milk supply, we had intractable thrush, breastfeeding with all three babies. So it’s really painful. Food allergies that were difficult to diagnose and then and then picky eating. And so at the time, despite being a pediatric dietitian, I what I didn’t I wasn’t finding support systems and resources that were practical and that were helping me move through these issues.

00;05;28;06 – 00;05;48;07
Malina Malkani
In in ways that I felt found were really helpful. So it my life’s work, my Instagram, my blog, all of the resources that I create are kind of there. The resources that I wish that I would have had happen to, I think, you know, I’ve seen a lot of your wonderful content that makes me think you can relate to that.

00;05;48;07 – 00;06;08;16
Malina Malkani
And a lot of ways I see you doing that as well, because, you know, it was humbling for me as a pediatric dietitian. But no matter how much education and experience we have, feeding can be really difficult. We’re so hard wired to nourish our babies, and when it doesn’t go the way that we hoped, it can be really stressful, you know?

00;06;08;16 – 00;06;35;26
Malina Malkani
Yeah. So so that was one. But but second and this is the why behind the book, which was born out of the first Y. I have unfortunately seen firsthand in my private practice and then also in social media, and connecting with followers there. How truly frustrating it can be for new parents when they realized that they didn’t have access to food allergy prevention information.

00;06;35;29 – 00;06;36;06
Malina Malkani
During.

00;06;36;06 – 00;06;57;14
Malina Malkani
Their really short window of time in their baby’s infancy, when it was crucial for them to have it. And I will never forget sitting, in an initial session with a family a couple of years ago, and the little boy was 12 months old, and he had just been diagnosed with multiple food allergies, and they were really difficult to navigate.

00;06;57;16 – 00;07;13;12
Malina Malkani
And despite having had severe eczema, my little boy had severe eczema all through his infancy, which indicates high risk for food allergies. Well, I was talking to the parents and at no point had the babies. Health care providers and health care team mentioned food allergy prevention to the.

00;07;13;14 – 00;07;15;10
Malina Malkani
If it was never mentioned.

00;07;15;12 – 00;07;39;29
Malina Malkani
And the I was just sitting there with tears running down her face asking me, you know, why hadn’t hadn’t this been brought up when it potentially, you know, it’s not a guarantee, but it potentially could have made such a big difference in her son’s health, but also in her own stress levels. And now being tasked with feeding a child and keeping him safe, who has multiple food allergies.

00;07;39;29 – 00;07;56;12
Malina Malkani
So that really has become, front and center in my work. How difficult food allergies can be on families? They’re stressful, they’re expensive, and we have this wonderful evidence based way to prevent them, but it’s not yet being widely implemented.

00;07;56;15 – 00;08;24;11
Dr. Mona
Yeah. And, you know, I will say I work with a, you know, variety of different clinicians myself. Right. And there are still some clinicians out there that although we know and we’re going to go through a little bit of that data and what we know, although we know that there is better ways to approach food allergies, which is early introduction, and not avoiding certain allergenic foods, you know, to later, which was the old recommendation, there are still clinicians out there that have not come up to date with the program here.

00;08;24;11 – 00;08;46;19
Dr. Mona
And part of our job as pediatricians, I can only speak for myself and my profession is to stay up to date on the most recent guidelines and why that research matters. And speaking with our colleagues in, you know, as dietitians or food allergies and saying, hey, what is the recommendation now? And, you know, the food allergy prevention is the reality is early introduction is better, which we’ll get into.

00;08;46;25 – 00;09;01;22
Dr. Mona
But it is it is hard to hear. I definitely, you know, for myself, try my best to stay up to date. And that’s why I have this platform, which in a way has forced me to continue to stay up to date, even though, like, you know, even though I was already doing it, it’s like it’s like built in CMMi.

00;09;01;22 – 00;09;19;21
Dr. Mona
I describe it right. Continuing medical education, having an online platform, and being, you know, inspired like you are from the experiences that you’ve had to create this online education. But you mentioned, you know, going into risk factors, you know, you did allude to eczema, which I know, you know, I know that that is a risk factor.

00;09;19;21 – 00;09;33;11
Dr. Mona
But explain to everyone listening how a parent can know if their baby is considered high risk or low risk for developing food allergies, and what we know so far with that information. Now let’s take a break to hear from our sponsors.

00;09;33;13 – 00;09;56;16
Malina Malkani
Yeah, yeah, it’s really interesting because you don’t it’s not such an intuitive thing to equate severe eczema during infancy necessarily with risk for food allergies. But but severe eczema is considered the strongest risk factor for food allergies. Babies with a previous previously diagnosed food allergy and or mild to moderate eczema are also considered to be at somewhat increased risk.

00;09;56;19 – 00;10;30;04
Malina Malkani
It’s interesting having a family history of allergic disease in one or both parents, not siblings. Yeah, but parents has historically been considered a risk factor and a much, much smaller one, although newer research does not suggest that. So it’s it’s interesting. It has to do with the dual allergen exposure, hypothesis, which theorizes that when allergens are entering through broken skin, they have a much, greater risk of, training the immune immune system to think that those allergens are dangerous.

00;10;30;11 – 00;11;03;22
Malina Malkani
Whereas if we can get those allergens in orally, early and often and sort of train the immune system that those proteins are safe, then there’s less of a risk of the allergy, from the food allergy for developing. But I think it’s really important for, for all parents to not make the mistake of thinking that food allergy prevention during infant feeding is only for those high risk babies, for severe eczema, because about a quarter of babies who develop food allergy never even had eczema to begin with.

00;11;03;25 – 00;11;26;04
Malina Malkani
So that’s what I’m hoping to do with the book is a food allergy. Prevention needs to be a part of the process of starting solids for every baby, no matter the level of risk. And I’m hoping that this will kind of bring the introduction of allergens into the conversation around starting solids and baby led weaning, baby like feeding for everybody to just sort of make it front and center.

00;11;26;04 – 00;11;29;24
Malina Malkani
When we think about the process of starting solids at around that six month mark.

00;11;29;28 – 00;11;45;09
Dr. Mona
Yeah, I love what you mentioned about the fact that it is not just risk factors, right? I know I mentioned, you know, what are the risk factors, eczema being one of them. And you talked about, family members having allergy disease. But you’re right. I mean, I see families coming in multiple times that are like, nobody has anything.

00;11;45;09 – 00;12;13;01
Dr. Mona
And I don’t know what happened here. And I think that is still an area of big research. Right. Why are these children, the children that have no family history of food allergies or any sort of allergy issue, you know, and now developing these things and I think there’s so much layers of research that, you know, in the allergy world, it’s still coming out, but what are ways that we can reduce that risk from food allergies, from developing in babies and I know there’s obviously a big research study out there.

00;12;13;01 – 00;12;19;22
Dr. Mona
And you know what? What has changed the narrative for all of our education out there. But how can we start by doing this reduction of risk?

00;12;19;24 – 00;12;32;28
Malina Malkani
Yeah. Well, I should start by saying that there are no guarantees. And I said this to I hope it was comforting for the mom that I was talking to, who was so sad that no one had brought up food allergy prevention. The reality is, we can do everything, quote unquote.

00;12;32;28 – 00;12;33;21
Dr. Mona
Right? Yes.

00;12;33;21 – 00;13;06;29
Malina Malkani
And introduce early and often and consistently and still end up with a food allergic child. That’s that’s it’s a very nuanced area of, of of medicine and of pediatric nutrition. There’s a lot we don’t know. But but we do have like you just mentioned, is new research that guides us on how to feed babies during infancy in a really practical way, which I love as a, as a dietitian and as a recipe developer, where we’re offering top allergenic foods like peanut and egg early, often, and consistently, of course, in baby friendly forms.

00;13;06;29 – 00;13;15;19
Malina Malkani
So in forms that they can eat starting at around six months of age or sometimes even a little bit earlier. And like I mentioned, and I will pound this on the table.

00;13;15;19 – 00;13;18;10
Malina Malkani
Until, probably until the day I die at this point.

00;13;18;12 – 00;13;41;24
Malina Malkani
But there’s just a really short window of time during infancy when it’s most effective. So it’s really important for caregivers not to miss it. The most robust research we have is on peanut, and that’s thanks to a 2015 study, which I think is the one you were probably just alluding to, was a randomized controlled clinical trial called the Learning Early about Peanut or Sleep study.

00;13;41;26 – 00;13;42;26
Malina Malkani
I love this study.

00;13;42;26 – 00;13;44;05
Dr. Mona
It’s me too.

00;13;44;07 – 00;13;46;02
Malina Malkani
It’s healthy right? Study.

00;13;46;02 – 00;14;03;28
Malina Malkani
Right. And it turned everything on its head because like you mentioned, when my my daughter just turned 15, my oldest, and when she was a baby, the recommendation was do not introduce top allergenic foods until one, two or even three years of age. And it’s like it’s.

00;14;04;05 – 00;14;04;29
Malina Malkani
It’s.

00;14;05;01 – 00;14;33;03
Malina Malkani
Whole 180 in the feeding recommendations that now we’re saying no. And this is thanks to the Leap study. But the Leap study taught us that when we when we introduce these foods like peanut to babies early and often, we can reduce the risk. And this was in high risk babies the study. But by 86%. Wow. Which like just blows my mind 86%.

00;14;33;03 – 00;14;36;25
Malina Malkani
We can reduce the risk of peanut allergy. So it’s compelling, right?

00;14;36;25 – 00;14;54;02
Dr. Mona
Yeah. And I mean, I will be linking the entire study for anyone and kind of like a summary of the study because I think it is extremely fascinating. And it’s what, like Melina said, like turned the entire guidance in a 180. And it was when I was in training that that was the new the new narrative and the new educational piece.

00;14;54;02 – 00;15;09;01
Dr. Mona
And so like I said earlier, when you meet clinicians who are like on their website, when I was searching for jobs down here in Florida, and I would go to the website, and one of the things was, you know, delay introduction, I was like, oh, probably not a good idea to join a practice that is not up to date on evidence based.

00;15;09;01 – 00;15;27;03
Dr. Mona
I mean, I could be the light that changes there the way they teach. But you’re right. I mean, it was very outdated advice, and I think all of us can admit that it was probably the cause of a lot of issues, meaning a lot of allergenic issues because of that outdated advice that needed modern, you know, research to kind of switch that.

00;15;27;05 – 00;15;47;02
Dr. Mona
But yeah, that was probably when I look back at all things medical guidance, it is probably the biggest quote unquote mistake that was kind of, made. And it’s our job now to say, hey, we were wrong. Or when I say we the medical establishment was wrong in terms of not having this research. And now we know and it is our job to be up to date like we talked about.

00;15;47;05 – 00;16;06;13
Malina Malkani
Yeah. And it’s hard. It’s really hard to flip. It’s such a, it’s such a 180 especially like if you have aunts or your grandmother or your mom or something is helping you feed your baby. Yes. Suddenly they they were taught something completely different when they were feeding children. So it’s really it’s like it’s like trying to steer the, you know, a huge ship around.

00;16;06;13 – 00;16;09;01
Malina Malkani
Doing just it can take some time and it can.

00;16;09;01 – 00;16;31;17
Malina Malkani
Take a lot of education. That’s what I’m hoping this book will be, is when, you know, when people are wondering, well, if I have a pediatrician who is not recommended is recommending delayed allergen introduction or is not recommending that I introduce these foods, and you don’t know what to say, but you it’s not sitting right with you because you’re educated and hearing other things from Doctor Mona or from the FDA.

00;16;31;17 – 00;16;40;18
Malina Malkani
On Instagram. You take the book, take it with you and say, you know, here’s this is an evidence based, up to date guide that says otherwise. Can we talk about it?

00;16;40;20 – 00;17;00;16
Dr. Mona
I love that advocacy piece. Right. Because I get it like it is. It is our job as clinicians to be up to date. And yet in all aspects. Right? I speak about so many different things, whether it’s sleep, cough and cold food allergies. And I’m always trying to say, hey, if you’re not being heard or if you feel like you’ve heard this and it’s not what is in line, advocate for yourself.

00;17;00;16 – 00;17;21;07
Dr. Mona
Like you said, because there is obviously research to back this up that we’re talking about. When you talk about early, often inconsistent, right. You mentioned about the early introduction of these foods. And you can use peanut as an example. What does that mean to you when you guide families? How do you make this in an easy to understand way where parents aren’t feeling overwhelmed, but understand the importance of it?

00;17;21;11 – 00;17;25;13
Dr. Mona
And why is this early, often, and consistent important for families to know?

00;17;25;20 – 00;17;45;14
Malina Malkani
Great great question. So by early, what we’re meaning is around six months of age, not necessarily on the six month birthday. And that’s where it can get kind of tricky. We want to look for those signs of readiness for solid foods. But once babies are developmentally ready for solid foods, sometimes that happens a little bit earlier. Yeah. And that’s okay.

00;17;45;14 – 00;18;06;27
Malina Malkani
You know, talk to your pediatrician, get get the go ahead that your baby is ready for solid foods sometimes earlier between 4 and 6 months can be advantageous more advantageous from a food allergy prevention perspective. But once an allergen has been introduced and tolerated, it’s really important to keep it in the baby’s diet consistently to help maintain that tolerance.

00;18;07;00 – 00;18;36;05
Malina Malkani
Because the immune system, our immune system systems don’t like it. During infancy, when we introduce an allergen once and then assume the baby’s not allergic if there’s no reaction, and that’s a piece of this food allergy prevention kind of puzzle that a lot of families forget. It’s it’s and I, you know, it’s another thing I’m pounding on the table about is it’s it’s, it’s not enough to introduce once and then just be like, okay, now my job is done.

00;18;36;07 – 00;19;03;16
Malina Malkani
Again. The most robust research we have is on peanut, but we have really good research on egg as well. So if you’re a parent and you’re looking for kind of a good first step here, prioritizing peanut an egg. The early introduction of peanut an egg is a really good place to start. The other top allergens and there are nine, there are nine top allergens in the U.S. they are responsible for over 90% of all food allergies.

00;19;03;16 – 00;19;28;16
Malina Malkani
And those include milk tree nuts, fish eggs. Sorry, I said eggs, wheat, shellfish and sesame, but we don’t have as much research on those allergens. Yeah. That being said, there is really good reason to believe that as more becomes available and more is being conducted regularly, we’ll learn that the early and frequent exposure to those foods is protective as well.

00;19;28;18 – 00;19;52;14
Malina Malkani
And some of the research that I really love in this area is coming out about diet diversity during infancy, which actually there’s some really we need more, but there’s great research showing that a diverse diet during infancy may lower a child’s odds of developing a food allergy during the first decade of life by a third. So which is another mind blowing one?

00;19;52;14 – 00;19;57;01
Dr. Mona
Yeah. And food diversity. You mean not just with allergenic foods, but all types of foods.

00;19;57;04 – 00;19;58;03
Malina Malkani
All types of foods?

00;19;58;03 – 00;19;59;12
Dr. Mona
I love it.

00;19;59;14 – 00;20;02;11
Malina Malkani
And you know, that’s helpful from a nutritive perspective.

00;20;02;11 – 00;20;10;13
Dr. Mona
Yeah, I’m just going to say I’m like, that’s also great from a selective eating standpoint. Right. Early introduction of righty. Yeah. So many so many benefits there.

00;20;10;15 – 00;20;27;04
Malina Malkani
Hitting a lot of birds with one stone, which is really great. And so if you, if you are a family who eats, you know, the foods I just mentioned, the top allergenic foods in your family and in your culture, it’s a really good idea to start feeding them to your baby early. Yeah, well, at around six months of age.

00;20;27;07 – 00;20;46;01
Dr. Mona
I really agree with that. And, you know, I have always been on the bandwagon of, you know, introducing spices from an early age and not like a five alarm chili to your baby, but like, I’m, you know, I’m Indian. And so we eat a lot of exotic spices for a lot of people, right? We do a lot of turmeric, a lot of, you know, different chili powders and things like that.

00;20;46;01 – 00;21;04;15
Dr. Mona
And we don’t make separate meals for our daughter or son growing up, obviously, if it was very spicy. Yeah. Because they can’t tolerate the very, very spicy level. But from a, you know, when you think about it from an immune system aspect and also the gut, the gut is getting introduced to so many good bacteria. If you introduce a variety of food.

00;21;04;15 – 00;21;23;28
Dr. Mona
Right. And that’s going to benefit the immune system. Is there a reason why we see that, that that diverse of food, not just allergens, can help prevent allergenic foods? Does it have to do with the good bacteria that’s developing or, you know, supporting the immune system? Or do we not know the actual reason yet? Now let’s take a break to hear from our sponsors.

00;21;24;00 – 00;21;48;09
Malina Malkani
You know, if there is a Y behind that, I don’t know what it is and I’m not sure it’s settled science at this point. What it is. We know that the microbiome has a lot to do with food allergy, but we don’t know how to manipulate it. Right? You know, specifically in such a way that we can prevent food allergy and some of the research around probiotics as a food allergy prevention tool has been really disappointing.

00;21;48;12 – 00;21;50;19
Malina Malkani
So there’s a lot we don’t know.

00;21;50;19 – 00;22;08;04
Malina Malkani
But I think, you know, if we can boil it, what we do know is that there there’s probably a great benefit to food allergy prevention in terms of diet diversity. And then like you said, we know that if we’re introducing a variety of different foods to to babies and kids early on, then they’re more likely to enjoy those foods later.

00;22;08;07 – 00;22;17;06
Malina Malkani
So from a picky eating prevention perspective, there may be a benefit there too. And you know, there’s just so many other benefits.

00;22;17;06 – 00;22;17;29
Malina Malkani
Yeah.

00;22;18;01 – 00;22;18;28
Malina Malkani
To introducing.

00;22;18;28 – 00;22;22;06
Dr. Mona
There’s no harm in what we’re saying to do. Right. Like there’s no enjoy.

00;22;22;06 – 00;22;24;10
Malina Malkani
Yeah I love it. Yeah. Exactly, exactly.

00;22;24;11 – 00;22;40;16
Dr. Mona
And I think, you know, and to the point about the research around that, I think it’s so hard with research surrounding allergies and gut health and all of that, to fully make a great study that doesn’t have any bias or confounding variables, because there are so many variables that make our microbiome right. There are so many things to consider, right?

00;22;40;16 – 00;23;00;17
Dr. Mona
Is it genetics? Is it the foods that we eat? Is it the environment that we’re in? So, you know, when people are hearing like, well, what is the data? What do we know? We have this great leap study about, you know, food allergenic exposure. But like what you’re talking about, the diversity of food potentially preventing or sorry, let’s say reducing, the incidence of food allergy is it makes sense to me.

00;23;00;17 – 00;23;26;14
Dr. Mona
Like even though there’s no research in my brain, I’m like, well, yeah, because your body is getting introduced, diverse foods and this is great for this is only going to serve in a positive way. But yeah, to be transparent there’s no data to show that. But I, I’m no doubt that there might be a study coming out or something even close to it to kind of explain the whys behind that, because that’s the negative about evidence based medicine is that we don’t always have the perfect study, you know, like not always.

00;23;26;14 – 00;23;38;18
Dr. Mona
And we do. And, you know, I love being able to share that and have us talk about that. But so, so much of it is well, is there a harm to this? No, I think diversifying a palette is a beautiful thing, like you’re saying for so many various reasons.

00;23;38;20 – 00;24;01;23
Malina Malkani
Yeah. And I like it too, because it’s actionable. Yes. Doesn’t leave us with nothing to do. It leaves us with something actually really delicious and kind of connecting for families and fun and exciting. You know, we don’t we don’t have to introduce the same foods over and over. We can really get creative during infancy with babies in terms of what we’re providing and that that has long lasting potential benefits.

00;24;01;25 – 00;24;19;22
Malina Malkani
Just from this, the solidifying of a family perspective, you know, there’s there’s just there’s no there’s no downside to that. Whereas the old adage, you know, the or the old recommendation where you want to delay allergen introduction and only introduce bland foods to babies, it was quite a kind of.

00;24;19;22 – 00;24;22;19
Malina Malkani
Restrictive, not very fun, new way to approach.

00;24;22;19 – 00;24;25;06
Malina Malkani
Starting solids. And that’s kind of been blown on its head.

00;24;25;12 – 00;24;26;02
Malina Malkani
Yeah.

00;24;26;04 – 00;24;38;14
Malina Malkani
So from a from a feeding perspective and, bringing babies into family meals earlier on and connecting with them over food, this is really positive, wonderful advice. Which I, which I love.

00;24;38;18 – 00;24;54;10
Dr. Mona
I love it and I think, you know, I look at three major stressors for parents with food. Right. So you’re already obviously talking heavily about food allergens, right? People are afraid of their child having a food allergy and them not knowing what to do. And I have many other resources for that. I know your book will probably go into that as well.

00;24;54;17 – 00;24;54;28
Malina Malkani
Yeah.

00;24;54;28 – 00;25;08;28
Dr. Mona
Yeah. Okay. And then also also so there’s that the fear of allergy. Okay. Well I’m not going to know what to do. I’m not going to be near a hospital or whatnot. The other big thing is what the heck do I eat? You know, like what do honey, what the heck do I serve? Which we’re, we’re talking about a little bit.

00;25;09;04 – 00;25;36;21
Dr. Mona
And then the third major issue and stressor is choking. Right. And I think we’ll talk about a little bit about choking hazards, especially with, allergenic foods. But what are some practical ways that we can build this into our everyday life? Right. You said it perfectly that this isn’t about making this more stressful. We shouldn’t have to think like, oh my gosh, I didn’t introduce peanut, and I’m supposed to introduce it every day and edit, how can we just make this sustainable but also follow that early, often and consistent approach?

00;25;36;24 – 00;25;41;10
Malina Malkani
Yes, that was the biggest, nut to crack, pardon the.

00;25;41;10 – 00;25;46;10
Malina Malkani
Pun, as I was writing this book, because you can.

00;25;46;10 – 00;25;48;00
Malina Malkani
Get stuck in the science of it. And then.

00;25;48;00 – 00;25;50;23
Malina Malkani
They trying out the number of days that you’ve introduced.

00;25;50;25 – 00;25;52;27
Malina Malkani
All nine allergens. And you start with, like.

00;25;52;27 – 00;25;55;18
Malina Malkani
These, you start getting into math. And that’s just.

00;25;55;18 – 00;26;12;20
Malina Malkani
Not practical, especially for children and lots of people to feed and not easy. So that’s what I strove to do with the book. I and I, you know, in my private practice, I’ve spent so many years hearing from families that it’s hard enough to get a meal on the table. Yeah.

00;26;12;20 – 00;26;15;03
Malina Malkani
Let alone. Right. I mean.

00;26;15;06 – 00;26;41;19
Malina Malkani
You know, with all the different stressors that we have in our lives, different schedules, there’s, you know, work and there’s activities and it’s hard, let alone keeping allergens in the diet once they’ve been introduced. So I create did not only just a roadmap so that it’s simple for families to introduce those allergens. And I’m showing them how to do so and modify them so that babies can safely eat them.

00;26;41;21 – 00;26;45;25
Malina Malkani
But the book also contains eight weeks of maintenance plans.

00;26;45;25 – 00;26;47;09
Malina Malkani
Nice meal plans.

00;26;47;11 – 00;26;56;12
Malina Malkani
So you can just. If you just want someone to do all the thinking for you, you don’t have to think about it. Here’s the 80 recipes. I did all the recipe development and I did the.

00;26;56;12 – 00;26;56;19
Malina Malkani
Food.

00;26;56;19 – 00;26;58;10
Malina Malkani
Photography myself as well.

00;26;58;10 – 00;27;00;05
Malina Malkani
So amazing. Wow.

00;27;00;05 – 00;27;05;21
Dr. Mona
Oh my gosh what an invest. What a time investment into this. I’m so proud. I’m so proud of you. This is so this is a great resource.

00;27;05;22 – 00;27;24;26
Malina Malkani
You I really appreciate that. I wanted to do the food photography because I wanted to show people how it’s it’s not just the meal prepared for the baby, but it’s also the meal that you’re then serving to your toddler and your school age child and your whoever else is eating with you. One meal for everybody that that was the goal.

00;27;24;26 – 00;27;46;08
Malina Malkani
As a mom of three, I don’t it’s, you know, the families that come to me in my private pictures are the ones who are often exhausted because they’re making different meals for everybody who have different dietary needs. And that’s a really quick recipe for burnout. So, so the book will prevent that. It’s got 80 recipes, eight weeks of meal plans.

00;27;46;08 – 00;27;59;22
Malina Malkani
Just follow that and you’ll make sure that you’re hitting all the allergens. I think that the that you know, my girls were my recipe testers, they are now 11, 13 and 15, so they are brutally honest.

00;27;59;25 – 00;28;04;22
Dr. Mona
I love it the best. Critics are teenage girls, I love it. Or pre-teen.

00;28;04;22 – 00;28;06;06
Malina Malkani
Girls.

00;28;06;08 – 00;28;14;29
Dr. Mona
They will tell you I love it. You did great. You’re great. A quality testing there and good demographic.

00;28;15;02 – 00;28;16;08
Malina Malkani
Boy, that’s so good.

00;28;16;08 – 00;28;31;05
Dr. Mona
You know, I think, I love that. I think that, you know, people, I never use any, like, meal planning. And I, you know, there are benefits to having that. And I think especially when we’re dealing with this. Well, I want to do it right. I want to do it where I’m providing the best, you know, option for my children.

00;28;31;05 – 00;28;46;18
Dr. Mona
It’s so nice to have this resource and also just the education behind it. Right. It’s not just recipes. It’s why this is important. What do we know about the food allergy? So I think, you know, that, like I said, I think this book is a great resource for that. And, you know, lastly about the choking hazard, especially peanuts, right?

00;28;46;20 – 00;28;59;02
Dr. Mona
How do you give an example of peanuts? What are some ways to modify that for the parent? That’s like, well, I don’t know how to introduce peanut. Like I can’t give them a whole nut or can I like, what is that sort of guidance? And do you have that information in your book as well?

00;28;59;02 – 00;29;21;22
Malina Malkani
Yes, it is definitely in the book Online Allergens how to introduce them. It’s funny because peanuts, they don’t sound like the, you know, obvious first food or early food for babies, but they’re actually really nutrient dense. Yeah, nutrients for babies. Iron and zinc are so key during infancy. We do need to modify them though, as you mentioned, because whole nuts and also globs of peanut butter.

00;29;21;23 – 00;29;22;08
Malina Malkani
Yes.

00;29;22;09 – 00;29;24;00
Malina Malkani
You don’t know that.

00;29;24;02 – 00;29;27;09
Malina Malkani
No, I know they and it’s so yummy, as you know, just put a spoon in the.

00;29;27;09 – 00;29;28;25
Malina Malkani
Peanut butter jar and have a bite.

00;29;29;01 – 00;29;44;18
Malina Malkani
But that would be not safe for a baby because it can very easily plug the airway. That’s what we’re worried about. So an easy way to do it is to take a couple of teaspoons of smooth peanut butter. We don’t want the crunchy one because it can have larger pieces. And that that also would pose a risk.

00;29;44;20 – 00;30;06;24
Malina Malkani
Just mix it into a like an oatmeal or a familiar puree in applesauce. Something that your child likes. Or you can just do it plain and thin it out with a little bit of breast milk or formula, and feed it on a spoon for baby led weaning. If you want to do it as a finger food, you just put a thin layer of smooth peanut butter on a piece of toast or a teething cracker, or something that your child can self feed.

00;30;06;26 – 00;30;19;21
Malina Malkani
And then there’s lots of recipes in the book, like peanut apple fritters and mascarpone peanut butter melts that are frozen. You love it. Yummy little ways to just build peanut butter, into the died in other ways once it’s been introduced.

00;30;19;24 – 00;30;41;17
Dr. Mona
Well, I love it. I’m so excited that your book is out. I think again, it’s going to be a great resource and I love the evidence, but also the practical, you know, making this not, annoying process, but an actually enjoyable process, which I have always felt like when we lose the joy in basic parenting, things like feeding, meal time, all of that, we need to reevaluate, right?

00;30;41;17 – 00;30;51;20
Dr. Mona
It does not have to be this awful, stressful experience, which I think some parents tend to navigate towards. And so I hope this book and this resource in our conversation has helped parents in that way.

00;30;51;22 – 00;31;08;02
Malina Malkani
I hope so too. I love that that’s such a key piece in the process of starting solids. There used to be that adage food, food before one is just for fun. Yeah, that’s a rest. Now we can, we can, you know, we know that it’s about a lot more than fun, but it’s also about fun.

00;31;08;07 – 00;31;09;28
Malina Malkani
Yeah, we just mentioned it.

00;31;09;28 – 00;31;23;12
Malina Malkani
We have to have the fun piece because we want kids to enjoy food, to have a healthy, positive relationship with food and to and to enjoy eating because it’s such an important, crucial part of growing and thriving.

00;31;23;18 – 00;31;40;07
Dr. Mona
Yeah. And, you know, part of the podcast is I love to share all of this educational information, and I like to leave our listeners with some uplifting message from our guests. So for everyone listening, what would be your uplifting final message for everyone tuning in today?

00;31;40;09 – 00;32;02;22
Malina Malkani
Oh gosh. Well, two, there are 2 or 3 things. First of all, if you’re a parent, you’ve just had a baby. Just start the conversations with your pediatrician about food allergy prevention early. That way you’re not blindsided. It doesn’t come. You know, it comes up quickly. So by the time it’s time to start solids and start introducing allergens, it doesn’t surprise you.

00;32;02;24 – 00;32;27;26
Malina Malkani
Second, once you’ve established feeding, just get the show on the road with allergens. It’s there. Wonderful, minimally processed, nutrient dense foods, all of them. So there are foods that your baby can enjoy, that you can enjoy with them. And don’t delay. And third, if you want to know more about my book, if you want to sample some of the recipes and take a look at it, you can go to Food Allergy Prevention Booking.com.

00;32;27;29 – 00;32;41;19
Malina Malkani
And there’s a lot of information there for you. You can see some of the pictures of the recipes there. And please connect with me at my Instagram. Healthy mom, healthy kids. I love answering nutrition questions there and connecting with followers.

00;32;41;22 – 00;32;59;25
Dr. Mona
Thank you! I will be attaching all of those resources to our shownotes, including her social media handle. So like we talked about, just definitely check her out there. Check out the book if you are past the stage, but you know that this book will be useful for a family member in your life that may be starting their feeding journey, definitely send it as a gift.

00;33;00;02 – 00;33;10;01
Dr. Mona
And I really enjoyed having you on Melina and I’m again, I’m so excited for your book to come out into the world and be here for everyone to have and to consume, no pun intended for.

00;33;10;03 – 00;33;16;22
Malina Malkani
So thank you so much, Doctor Mona. You’re the best. Thank you for coming on. Thank you.

00;33;16;25 – 00;33;35;23
Dr. Mona
Thank you, Melina, and congratulations on your new book. And if you love this episode, please make sure to leave a review shared on social media so we can continue to grow the show. Your love. The way you tune in is how the show continues to grow, so I can’t stress that enough. And next week, I have one of the most insightful conversations I’ve had that’s coming on deck.

00;33;35;23 – 00;34;03;06
Dr. Mona
I welcome Ruth Whippman, a writer, culture critic, and the mother of three boys and author of Boy Mom Reimagining Boyhood in the Age of Impossible Masculinity. And we’re talking about raising boys and redefining toxic masculinity and how it impacts friendships and emotional health for our boys. And as they become men, you will not want to miss it. Make sure to subscribe here and on YouTube, have a great rest of your week and chat next time.

00;34;03;06 – 00;34;03;25
Dr. Mona
Stay well.