Should I delay allergens like egg or peanut to be safe?
No. Italian and European guidance explicitly rejects delaying allergens, including for babies considered at risk. Delay does not prevent allergy, and for egg and peanut early introduction is associated with less allergy, not more.
This is the question where the advice a parent hears from family is most likely to be a generation out of date.
The Italian position, from both the Ministero della Salute and SIP, aligns with ESPGHAN: children at risk of allergy or coeliac disease should not follow a different weaning schedule. Delay does not prevent allergy. Allergenic foods may be introduced whenever complementary feeding starts.
Egg is the clearest case. Early introduction between 4 and 6 months was associated with reduced egg allergy across five trials. Cooked or heated form only.
Peanut follows the general rule for most babies - any time after weaning begins, as smooth butter or paste, never whole.
The one real exception
A baby with severe eczema and/or an existing egg allergy is in a different category. ESPGHAN’s guidance there is introduction between 4 and 11 months, but only after assessment by a professional trained to do it. If that describes your baby, this is a conversation with your paediatrician, not something to arrange from a recipe page.
What early introduction does not mean
It does not mean all at once. One new allergen at a time, a few days apart, so that if there is a reaction you know what caused it. That is about attribution, not about safety through delay.
Every recipe in Primi Bocconi carries its own safe cut and allergen note for your baby's age, so the rules on this page are already applied by the time you are cooking.
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