Allergen Introduction

Keeping Allergens in Your Baby's Diet After Introduction

ASCIA says to keep offering each introduced allergen at least once a week. One family's weekly rota for nine allergens, shared with carers.

Published 23 September 2026 · Reviewed 27 September 2026

Educational note: This article describes general information that many parents have found useful. It is not medical advice. Always consult your paediatrician about your baby's specific health needs before introducing new foods or interpreting symptoms. Read our full disclaimer.

Our fridge door has a sheet of paper with nine foods written down the left edge and the days of the week across the top. It went up the week after our last allergen introduction, when we realised we had spent months getting egg, peanut and the rest into our baby and had no plan for what came next. Getting each one in once turned out to be the first half of the job. Here is the rota we landed on. Talk it over with your own doctor before you copy any of it.

Direct Answer: ASCIA's 2026 infant feeding guideline says that once a common food allergen has been introduced, and unless the baby has had an allergic reaction to it, it should keep being offered at least once a week. NIAID's 2017 peanut addendum gives a figure for higher-risk infants who start peanut under its first guideline: roughly 6 to 7 g of peanut protein per week, spread over three or more feedings.

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Introduction starts the clock

For months our allergen plan had an end date in our heads. Once the last of the nine had gone through its 14-day rhythm, we assumed we were finished. Our paediatrician gently corrected that at a check-up: the introductions were the part with a schedule attached, and the part after it was simply feeding the baby those foods as ordinary food, week after week.

The reasoning, as we understood it from the guideline itself, is that a food eaten once and then dropped for months may not do the job early introduction is meant to do. ASCIA's guideline puts it plainly: introducing an allergen "and then not offering it regularly may be associated with the development of food allergy." We had written a lot about first tastes on this site, including our peanut schedule, and very little about month four.

At least once a week, in ASCIA's words

Recommendation 9 of the 2026 ASCIA Guideline: Infant Feeding for Food Allergy Prevention says that once a common food allergen has been introduced, "unless the infant has an allergic reaction to the food, the food should continue to be offered to the infant at least once a week." Recommendations 10 and 11 repeat the same wording for egg and for peanut. ASCIA notes that once a week was chosen partly because it is practical for families, and it is expert consensus rather than a number tested in a trial.

If you remember an older figure, you are not imagining it. Earlier ASCIA advice said twice a week, and the 2026 update relaxed it, a change the first-aid educators at CPR Kids put down to thin evidence on how much or how often, plus the realities of feeding a baby. We cover the rest of the guideline in our ASCIA post.

NIAID's peanut figure for higher-risk babies

The US guidance is more specific about peanut, but only for one group. The NIAID 2017 addendum guidelines split infants three ways. Guideline 1 covers babies with severe eczema, egg allergy or both, and for them the panel says that once peanut has been introduced, "the total amount of peanut protein to be regularly consumed per week should be approximately 6 to 7 g over 3 or more feedings." The panel ties it to the LEAP trial, where most children in the peanut group reported eating at least that much.

For babies with mild to moderate eczema, and for babies with neither, the addendum talks about introducing peanut around 6 months or freely alongside other foods, in line with family preferences, without attaching a weekly gram count. We did not try to weigh peanut protein at home. A baby in the first group gets that plan worked out with their own doctor, often after testing, and the gram figure belongs in that conversation.

Nine allergens on one fridge-door rota

Our rota is dull on purpose. Dairy and wheat mostly look after themselves, because yoghurt and toast turn up most days anyway. The other seven each got a day or two. Monday is scrambled egg. Tuesday, a spoon of smooth peanut butter thinned with warm water and stirred into porridge. Wednesday is salmon for fish and a swirl of hummus for sesame. Thursday is egg again, baked into a muffin. Friday, ground almond goes into the porridge for tree nuts. Saturday brings tofu for soy and peanut a second time. Sunday is a few finely chopped prawns in a fried rice for shellfish.

Nothing on it is whole or chunky. Whole nuts and chunky nut butter are choking hazards, so nuts only ever appear ground or as thinned smooth butter. Some weeks it slipped, a cold or a trip away, and we picked up again the following Monday rather than trying to cram in two weeks of catching up.

Who gave the baby peanut on Thursday?

The rota worked well at home and fell apart the first week our nanny and the grandparents were doing half the meals. The paper was on our fridge, not theirs. Grandma made egg on a Monday because it was easy, not knowing we had done egg that morning, and peanut went missing for eight days because each of us assumed someone else had covered it.

Nothing bad happened. The week just stopped matching the plan, and we could not tell by looking at the fridge. What fixed it was one shared log that everyone added to at the time of the meal, so on a Friday afternoon anyone could see whether tree nuts had been in that week. A thirty-second chat at handover covered the rest.

Variety carries most of the load

Once we stopped thinking of the rota as an allergy task, it got easier. Most of the week is simply ordinary meals, and the allergens sit inside foods the whole family was eating anyway. Tracking our baby's first 100 foods helped here, because it made us look at the whole plate rather than at nine foods in isolation and at the vegetables and grains that came alongside them.

The rota itself we still keep on paper. The log is where we check it against real life. ASCIA's weekly advice covers foods the baby has eaten without a reaction, so anything that ever caused one would come straight off the rota and go to our paediatrician as a question. The other lines on the paper stay, and most weeks now they fill themselves in without much thought.

Questions parents ask

Why do you need to keep giving baby allergens after introducing them?

Allergens need to stay in a baby's diet after introduction because a food eaten once and then dropped for months may not do the job early introduction is meant to do. ASCIA's 2026 guideline says introducing an allergen "and then not offering it regularly may be associated with the development of food allergy." Our paediatrician described the part after introductions as feeding those foods as ordinary food, week after week. Ask your paediatrician about your own baby's plan.

Source: ASCIA Guideline: Infant Feeding for Food Allergy Prevention (2026), Clin Exp Allergy

Did ASCIA change allergen advice from twice a week to once a week?

Yes. Earlier ASCIA advice said to keep offering introduced allergens twice a week, and the 2026 guideline relaxed this to at least once a week. ASCIA notes that once a week was chosen partly because it is practical for families, and that it is expert consensus rather than a number tested in a trial. CPR Kids put the change down to thin evidence on how much or how often, plus the realities of feeding a baby.

Source: ASCIA Guideline: Infant Feeding for Food Allergy Prevention (2026), Clin Exp Allergy; CPR Kids: Starting solids and updated allergen guidelines (2026)

How do you fit nine allergens into a baby's week?

One family kept nine allergens in their baby's week with a plain rota on the fridge. Dairy and wheat mostly looked after themselves through yoghurt and toast. The other seven got a day or two each: scrambled egg, thinned smooth peanut butter in porridge, salmon and hummus, ground almond, tofu and finely chopped prawns. Nuts only ever appeared ground or as thinned smooth butter, because whole nuts and chunky nut butter are choking hazards.

Source: NIAID Addendum Guidelines for the Prevention of Peanut Allergy (2017); NHS: Foods to avoid giving babies and young children

What if baby misses a week of an allergen?

If a baby misses a week of an allergen because of a cold or a trip away, one family simply picked up again the following Monday rather than trying to cram in two weeks of catching up. ASCIA's weekly advice covers foods the baby has eaten without a reaction, so anything that ever caused one would come off the rota and go to the paediatrician as a question. Ask your paediatrician about your own baby.

Source: ASCIA Guideline: Infant Feeding for Food Allergy Prevention (2026), Clin Exp Allergy

How do grandparents and carers keep track of which allergens baby has had?

A rota on one family's fridge fell apart once a nanny and grandparents were doing half the meals: egg was doubled up one Monday and peanut went missing for eight days. What fixed it was one shared food log that everyone added to at the time of the meal, so anyone could check whether tree nuts had been in that week. A thirty-second chat at handover covered the rest.

Check whether this week's allergens made it in

Caregiver Sync shares one food log between your devices and your carers' through your own Google Drive, encrypted before it leaves your phone. The 100 foods variety tracker shows the spread of what your baby is eating, so a missed week stands out.

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