Many parents and caregivers find allergen introduction to be quite overwhelming—here, our team aims to simplify the process of how to use our app to best support you in introducing allergens to your baby.

Allergen Introduction and Selection

Allergens are introduced as you build your meal plans for the First Food Experience. 

• To start building a meal plan, click “Start your 100 foods plan” on the “Today” tab. This will put you in the first “skill path” of First Foods, and the app will suggest foods to introduce, which you can accept or swap for others of your choice. More on how to navigate the First Foods Experience here!

• Once you’ve made your food selections, the app will generate recipe ideas with those foods to create your first meal plan. 

• You can access your meal plan via the "Plan" button, where you can add/remove meals as you wish.

When the First Foods skill path is complete, the app will prompt you to move to the next skill path, Introduce Allergens, where you will be shown how to introduce your first allergen:

• In this path, the app will suggest one allergen series to introduce, which you can accept, or click "Explore more allergens" to swap for another series. 

• Once you select the allergen series, the allergen will be introduced over a series of three meals with increasing amounts of the allergen in each meal. These introduction meals will be incorporated into your "My Meals" carousel on your "Today" tab. 

• Once you have successfully introduced your first allergen, this path will complete. For the duration of the experience, each time you build your meal plan for the next skill, the app will suggest a new allergen to introduce in the “New allergens” section at the top. 

• The app will also give the option of including meals with previously introduced allergens to keep those allergens in rotation and maintain exposure.

*Tip*: All skills for the First Foods Experience can be seen by clicking the "Progress" button on your app homepage and scrolling to the "My Progress" section. Learn more about the skills here.

Allergen Status Overview

If you want to check your baby’s progress towards allergen introduction, click into the “Today” tab and scroll down to the “Allergens introduced” heading where you can click “View all,” to see a list of all common allergens with their status:

• Not started = allergen has not been introduced yet

• In progress = allergen is currently being introduced

• No reaction = allergen introduced with no reaction

• Reaction = allergen introduced with allergic reaction

How to Mark an Allergen as Introduced with No Reaction

• Once an allergen series has been added to your “My Meals,” you can begin working through the three introduction meals for that allergen. 

• By clicking “Mark as done” on the allergen recipe, you will complete that recipe and log its ingredients in your Tracker. 

• Marking all three allergen introduction recipes as “done” will update that allergen’s status in your profile to “No reaction.”

How to Mark an Allergen as Allergic (Reaction)

If your child has a reaction to an allergen, follow these steps to mark it allergic (“Reaction”) in your profile, and remove that allergen’s remaining meals from your carousel:

1. Click the "Baby had a reaction?" button beneath the recipe card on your app's "Today" tab carousel.

2. Click "Remove (Allergen Name) from my meals" 

*Tip*: To confirm the allergen’s status, scroll down to the "Allergens introduced" section of your "Today" tab and click "View All" to see the status "Reaction" next to the allergen you just noted. If/when you get clearance from a medical professional to retry the allergen, you can select the "Try again" button next to the allergen name to restart the series. We cannot give guidance/advice on reintroduction of an identified allergen, this needs to be done with guidance from a medical professional.

How to Update an Allergen from “No Reaction” to Allergic (“Reaction”)

Follow these steps to mark an allergic reaction to a food that was previously introduced without a reaction: 

1. Click into your "Today" tab

2. Scroll down to "Allergens introduced" and click "View all"

3. Click "Try again" next to the allergen you want to change and click “Repeat Introduction.”

4. Click on your current skill path name on your “Today” tab where it says “X number of foods to finish (skill path name)” and then click “Add more foods.”

5. Choose the allergen under "New allergens" at the top to add it to your meal plan

6. Choose "Baby had a reaction?" under the allergen introduction card in your "My Meals" to mark it as allergic. 

How to Re-Try a Food Currently Marked as Allergic (“Reaction”)

To remove a food as an allergen, follow these steps:

1. Click into your "Today" tab

2. Scroll down to "Allergens introduced" and click "View all"

3. Click "Try again" next to the allergen you want to re-introduce, select the confirmation checkbox, and click “Try this allergen again.”

4. When you are ready to re-introduce the allergen (after being given the go-ahead by your healthcare provider), click on your current skill path name on your “Today” tab where it says “X number of foods to finish (skill path name)” and then click “Add more foods.”

5. Choose the allergen to introduce under "New allergens" at the top to add its introduction meals to your meal plan.

Switching Selected Allergen to a Different One

To switch your current allergen series to a different one, follow these steps: 

1. Click into your "Today" tab and find the introduction recipe for the allergen series you want to remove in your "My Meals" carousel.

2. Click on the 3 dots in the upper right corner of the recipe card and select "Discard recipe" and then "Remove allergen from my meals." This will remove that series from your meal carousel.

3. Click on your current skill path name on your “Today” tab where it says “X number of foods to finish (skill path name)” and then click “Add more foods.”

4. Click "Explore more allergens" (under the "New allergens" heading at the top) to select a new allergen series to add to your "Today" tab.

Logged Allergen(s) Not Reflecting in Profile

If you do not see an allergen status reflected in your profile, it is most likely due to one of the following:

• You may have logged the allergen from the food database page (in the “Foods” tab) rather than the three allergen introduction meals from the “Today” tab carousel. At this time, the only way to mark an allergen series as "done" is to mark the 3 allergen introduction meals as complete. Once you do that, the app will recognize that you have completed that allergen and its status will update on your “Allergens introduced” page. In the future, we hope for the database to “talk” to the First Foods Experience, but we’re not quite there yet!

• You may have manually added the three allergen introduction meals individually by searching for them within the “Plan” screen. Unfortunately, if the introduction meals are added in this way, and then marked as complete, it does not trigger the app to recognize that you completed the allergen series. You must add allergen meals directly into your meal plan while building it via the First Foods experience in order for the allergen to be considered successfully introduced. Allergen series can be added into the First Food Experience by following these steps:

1. Click on your current skill path name on your “Today” tab where it says “X number of foods to finish (skill path name)” and then click “Add more foods.”

2. Accept the suggested allergen listed under “New allergens” or click  "Explore more allergens" to swap for a different series. Once you select a series, its three introduction meals will be automatically added to your “My Meals” carousel. 

Allergen/dietary Preferences Not Showing in the “Meals” Tab

Unfortunately, allergen/dietary preferences selected during onboarding do not display automatically within the “Meals” tab --this is so you can have the flexibility to use substitutions for certain ingredients while still being able to access an increased variety of recipes. 

However, you can manually apply allergen and diet filters by selecting the “Sort & Filters” button within the “All Meals” section of the “Meals” tab.

Please contact us if you have any additional questions or need further guidance - we're here to help!