TOPLINE:

Toddlers on elimination diets for food allergies were at higher risk for reduced overall dietary diversity and food allergen diversity. However, they tend to consume more plant-based beverages than their peers without allergies.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers surveyed 388 toddlers recruited from nurseries in Warsaw and Olsztyn, Poland, between March and June 2025.
• They compared 61 toddlers with food allergies who were on elimination diets (median age, 23 months; 59% boys) with 327 healthy toddlers (median age, 25 months; 45.9% boys), focusing on overall dietary diversity and feeding practices such as formula feeding and consumption of plant-based beverages.
• They assessed dietary diversity using a food-frequency questionnaire and feeding difficulties via the Montreal Children’s Hospital Feeding Scale.

TAKEAWAY:

• Toddlers with food allergies had significantly lower median overall dietary diversity scores and mean food allergen diversity scores than their healthy peers (P < .001 for both).
• Toddlers with food allergies were nearly four times more likely to consume plant‑based beverages than their healthy peers (relative risk, 3.6; P <.001).
• No significant between-group differences in the proportion of toddlers who were formula-fed, the mean number of meals consumed per day, or the proportion of toddlers with feeding difficulties were observed.

IN PRACTICE:

“Individualized nutritional counseling for children with FA [food allergy] should be promoted to support appropriate allergen introduction, ensure adequate diet variety, and prevent over-restriction,” the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

Andrea Horvath, with the Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland, was the corresponding author of the study, which was published online on October 13, 2025, in Nutrients.

LIMITATIONS:

Convenience sampling may have attracted parents specifically interested in infant feeding or with perceived feeding problems. The study population comprised children from two large Polish cities with high parental socioeconomic status, which may have limited the study’s generalizability to smaller towns, rural areas, or lower-income families. Additionally, parent-reported data may have been affected by recall bias and social desirability bias.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was funded by the Medical University of Warsaw and an education grant from Nutricia. Three authors reported serving as speakers; one of them received also declared receiving support, and another declared serving as a clinical investigator and advisory board member for various nutrition-product companies and a scientific foundation.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.