Food allergy prevention project

Project overview

The Food Allergy Prevention Project aims to increase the uptake of the ASCIA guidelines for infant feeding and allergy prevention. The project addresses two key components for food allergy prevention:

Introducing the common allergy causing foods in the first year of life.
Optimising eczema management to prevent sensitisation to foods through the skin.

The National Allergy Strategy received funding from the Australian government to implement a food allergy prevention project based on the ASCIA guidelines for infant feeding and allergy prevention. This project was informed by National Allergy Strategy Infant Feeding Implementation Meeting (IFIM) held in March 2017, which engaged key stakeholder organisations to guide the implementation process.

The National Allergy Strategy launched the pilot phase of the Food Allergy Prevention Project in August 2018. The project was piloted in Western Australia. A range of resources including the Nip allergies in the Bub website as an outcome of focus group engagement, were released. Feedback was collected from end users to help improve the resources prior to the national roll-out of the project.

In September 2019, the Food Allergy Prevention Project was launched nationally. The Nip allergies in the Bub website, a key component of this project, contains practical information for parents about how to introduce the common food allergens and how to optimise eczema management. The website also contains a section for health professionals including education resources.

Comments received about the website include:

“Love the look and ease of use of the website. Very helpful and informative.” (consumer)

“Great information! Easy to navigate site.” (consumer)

“I appreciate the ideas of how to incorporate the allergy causing foods into meals I can offer my baby e.g. mixing with fruit puree etc.” (consumer)

“Great website, important message, thanks.” (consumer)

“Excellent site. Love the video and would love to share it with my staff as a refresher on anaphylaxis and allergies as it is simple and short and sweet.” (health professional)