It is now generally agreed upon that it’s very important to introduce allergens early and often to our children. Typically we are talking 6 months, but if your baby shows signs that he or she may suffer from allergies (like severe eczema), it’s often recommended that the child be introduced to allergens as early as 4 months with the help of an allergist/pediatrician. Once an allergen is introduced, it’s recommended that it gets in baby’s diet rotation 2-3 times a week…. that’s a lot! And that’s where Lil Mixins comes in.
Lil Mixins makes pre-portioned powdered allergens, so you can just sprinkle them into your yogurt or just about anything else that can absorb powder. I’ve even put their powders on bananas or avocados (I’m doing baby led weaning). Obviously you can ground the allergens yourself, but besides the obvious convenience of not needing to do that, every time I have ground allergens on my own they were never as fine as with Lil Mixins, which particularly helpful at first when you’re stressing about starting solids.
Even more importantly, each pouch of Lil Mixins has the recommended serving size of the allergen- and nothing else. There are a few competitors, but I have to say I was completely put off by the fact that they add salt and cane sugar… NOT developmentally appropriate for a 6 month old! Lil Mixins is the only easy-to-use, clean option.
When I contacted competing brands to ask why they were adding sugar and/or salt this is a sample of what I was told: “The cane sugar ensures that baby loves the complicated combination of flavors from seafood to fish to tree nut to sesame.” Completely absurd! Babies will put anything in their mouth… there is zero reason to condition them to like sugar and salt at 6 months.
It’s also worth highlighting that each protein from Lil Mixins is made in a separate facility with the highest safety ratings, so you can track for reactions as you introduce the allergens one at a time. The allergies they make in powdered form are organic with peanut, egg, cashew, walnut, almond, sesame and soy. My only wish? They made powdered versions of fish, wheat and shellfish!
I will say the product isn’t cheap, so it’s not something I use every day – but it doesn’t need to be all or nothing! I always have Lil Mixins on hand (even when I travel) so that when I’m having a particularly rough day it’s a quick and easy way to feed my baby the needed allergens.
