The 36 Hour Rule

To address one thing a poster said dismissing the "rules" for waiting on having kids try nuts and nut butters: That's not just because of potential allergy problems. It's also because nuts and nut butters have high potential to choke young children. A wad of thick, sticky peanut butter can easily choke a kid. That's also why you should wait on things like popcorn and whole grapes and hot dogs that aren't cut up very small. So the "wait on nut butters and nuts" is important even if the parents think a child won't be allergic; even a kid with no food allergies can still choke.

the things that change is such a short time really LOL my youngest is 12 and I have never heard of this "rule". And my mother-in-law died from a nut allergy.

I just fed my kids whatever. I did space out new foods, but mostly so they would get a good taste of those foods before introducing something else. And my kids were all eating peanut butter before they were a year old.

To keep it straight with our twins, we introduced a new food a week. That was so much easier for us than remembering the 36 hours. We have no food allergies in our families either, but my son is allergic to peanuts, milk, and eggs (I also breastfed, so it didn't make a difference in exposure). I was told that if there are any allergies at all, allergies are passed down genetically, but it can be to anything. So, I am allergic to cats and also have seasonal allergies. That means my kids might inherit being allergic to something, and that could be food (as in my son's case). Allergies are passed down to our kids, but they could be allergic to something different than us. I hope that makes sense.

I never did any of this stuff. I have a 2 and 5 year old with no allergies, but I just fed them what I fed them that was small, soft or manageable for their age group. Both were eating peanut butter, strawberries (all berries really) and anything else they could chew on or gum by 8 months. I believe all of these "rules" about waiting to eat certain foods like nuts and nut butters until 1 or 2 and the 36 hour rule are responsible for so many kids having allergies. I would only pay attention to it if you have a family history.

Did not adhere to the 36 hour rule, with any of my 3 children. None of their doctors ever told me about it. They were all breastfed for a year, so they were exposed to all potential allergenic foods. And all three had shrimp broth(shrimp spaghetti soup) at around 9 months. I found out my eldest had a penicillin allergy(she was 8 months) when I was on my second round of it after I had a recurring ear infection. She had hives in her mouth and eyes- it was awful!

I know this is a general rule for high allergen families. But, rarely, have I heard for families with no allergens to be asked to use it. By now, I would think your little one would be ok. She has already had some of the foods that would trigger a allergy. I think your doing an excellent job and relax. She can pretty much eat anything given its cut up small enough! Good luck!

Never heard of it. Sounds like your doing everything the right way.

Blessings.....

I have three daughters. My youngest just turned a year. I have never followed this rule. I don't know anyone with food allergies so it would be extremely rare for one of my children to have a food allergy.

I have never heard of this rule, especially if there are no histories of allergies, why bother?

I never stuck to the rule with either of mine--i feel like if you have no family history or allergies, your child should be pretty safe to try anything. With both kids I found out early on that they weren't allergic to peanut butter--once on a family trip my hubby's aunt was watching the baby and when I came back to get him his face was smeared with peanut butter and he was SO HAPPY! He was 6 months old and she had no idea that you aren't supposed to give them peanut butter, and she just loved how giddy he was about the taste of it. With my daughter (now 7 months), I came out of the bathroom one day and she was holding her brother's PB&J and munching away. He had decided he didn't want it anymore, so he just handed it to her hah

i never did the 36 hour rule. i stuck to not feeding them the standard nuts, peanut butter, etc. but with the baby food it was a free for all!

I have never heard of 36 hour rule...I thought it was more like three days. Both my kids have food allergies and I was very careful introducing foods. My daughter ate peas with no problems for three months and suddenly broke out in hives one day. The body has to be sensitized to a food before they can have a reaction. You can become allergic to anything at anytime. I wouldn't worry too much if there is no history, but I would introduce new foods (single ingredient) a few days at a time.

I never used a "36 hour" rule, just waited a couple of days between new foods when I had infants under a year old. I didn't introduce peanut butter til age 3, at the time, that was the AAP recommendation

Huh, I guess I thought everyone followed the three day rule (I've never heard of 36 hours). I can't remember when I relaxed about introducing food for my daughter, probably around 9 or 10 months. But I still did wait on the common allergens (nuts, milk, shellfish, berries etc) and once I did introduce those I made sure I didn't introduce anything else for a couple of days.

Check out a website to see what the top 10 allergic foods are - yes PB and shellfish are high, as are ALL nuts. I'd keep it for those and even wait until she's after 1 - we too never had food allergies, then our ALMOST 1 yr old tasted PB and boom.

I don't know if she's had wheat, soy, cow's milk, eggs, etc. yet, but watch those too. FYI - many kids have constipation issues when switching over to cow's milk as it's harder to digest.

I think most other fruits, veggies, etc should be fine esp if you're making it or sticking with baby food with there are no "sauces" or other ingredients to worry about.

With my 1st, I followed it very carefully. With the 4th, I didn't worry about it:)

Am I a terrible Mom? I never did that except for high-allergy foods like berries, acidic foods, eggs, etc. No one in our family has food allergies so I figured it would be highly unlikely that a food allergy would occur in one of my children. I guess I'm lucky I was right!