As some of you know, I did beat myself up a bit about starting solids a little early (almost 5m) but the alternatives were to starve DS and neither of us sleep or to use formula. I now do a few solids, just fruit and veg with a bit of baby rice and porridge, and one formula bottle a day.
As for allergies, DH has so many then I doubt solid introducion would bother any allergies already there! He has already suffered hay fever and was fully BFed at that point.
My mum started my sister on solids at 12w and she now still has heartburn after eating. I was started at 4m and while I would disagree with giving a 4mo chocolate, I am allergy free. But one person is not a statistic.
Anyway, thanks Jac for posting that you can't find evidence. DS was more than ready for solids when I introduced them and is sat on my lap eating an apple (not pureed, it was my lunch as he was napping!) as I type.
I'm not sure why the studies are so hard to find, maybe because they are older? I haven't really looked for them, so I'm not sure if they are on the internet somewhere or not. The ABA's LRC (Lactation Resource Centre) has a library of articles and publications, so I am sure they would know where to look, maybe even provide you with a copy, I'm not sure. But if you are really interested in this, I would contact them.
Studies of course don't "prove" anything. All they can do is to show a likelihood of a link. It is impossible to categorically state that early introduction of solids causes allergies. All the WHO and medical bodies are saying is that, based on research, there appears to be a link, and therefore there is a risk involved in introducing solids before 6 months. Whether you find this an acceptable risk or not is of course up to you as an individual.
WRT whether there are more or less allergies now, there are two things to consider. Firstly, there are more chemicals (pesticides, preservatives etc) in our food now than in the past, so comparisons are not really between apples and apples so to speak. Secondly, 100 years ago, the recommendation was to introduce solids at 12 months. Somewhere along the way this was reduced to 6 weeks. This was shown to cause major problems, so it was increased to 3 months. Over time, it was noticed that there was a higher incidence of allergies, and studies showed that this appeared to be the result of starting solids earlier. Over time, this led to the recommedation changing to 6 months (although as you have pointed out, not all countries have adopted this recommendation. So that is the history behind the 6 month recommendation. I suspect (and this is JMO), that if starting solids before 6 months was not causing problems, it would not have been changed. But again, each person has to decide what to do for themselves, and as always, there is no right answer for everybody. HTH.
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