Supplementary Material for: Introduction of Potentially Allergenic Foods in the Infant’s Diet during the First Year of Life in Five European Countries

<i>Background:</i> Little information is available on infants’ age at first introduction of potentially allergenic foods as part of complementary feeding. We aimed to analyze age at the introduction of potentially allergenic foods in healthy term infants relative to recommendations in 5 European countries. <i>Method:</i> Recruitment was conducted from October 2002 to June 2004. A total of 1,678 infants [588 breastfed (BF) and 1,090 formula-fed (FF) infants] were studied. In 1,368 infants, at least one 3-day weighed food diary at the age of 1–9 and 12 completed months was available. <i>Results:</i> Six percent of BF infants and 13% of FF infants consumed some potentially allergenic food already prior to the recommended minimum age of 4 months, and 4% of BF infants and 11% of FF infants had already received gluten. There were significant differences in the timing of the introduction of potentially allergenic foods between the countries at the age of 4–6 months (p &lt; 0.001). <i>Conclusion:</i> The time of first introduction of potentially allergenic foods in infants differed significantly between countries, and they were introduced much earlier than recommended in some countries. FF infants received potentially allergenic foods earlier than BF infants. Better information and counseling of parents is desirable.

<i>背景：</i>目前关于婴儿在辅食添加阶段首次引入潜在致敏食物的年龄相关信息十分有限。本研究旨在针对5个欧洲国家的健康足月婴儿，分析其首次引入潜在致敏食物的年龄，并与各国推荐标准进行对比分析。<i>方法：</i>研究招募工作于2002年10月至2004年6月开展，共纳入1678名婴儿，其中母乳喂养（breastfed, BF）婴儿588名，配方奶喂养（formula-fed, FF）婴儿1090名。在1368名婴儿中，可获取其在1~9月龄及12月龄时至少1份为期3天的称重食物日记。<i>结果：</i>在推荐的最低引入年龄4月龄之前，已有6%的母乳喂养婴儿与13%的配方奶喂养婴儿摄入了潜在致敏食物；另有4%的母乳喂养婴儿与11%的配方奶喂养婴儿已摄入麸质。在4~6月龄阶段，各国婴儿首次引入潜在致敏食物的时机存在显著差异（p < 0.001）。<i>结论：</i>不同国家的婴儿首次引入潜在致敏食物的时间存在显著差异，部分国家的引入时间远早于推荐标准。配方奶喂养婴儿引入潜在致敏食物的时间早于母乳喂养婴儿。因此，为家长提供更完善的相关信息与咨询指导具有必要性。