Does SMS text messaging promote the early introduction of food allergens? A randomized controlled trial

Making a SmartStart for peanut introduction to support food allergy prevention guidelines for infants

“…A previous randomized control trial (BabyEATS study), which sent monthly text messages to an intervention group to promote early introduction of food allergens, did not report an increase in early introduction of food allergens versus in the control. 25 So why was SmartStartAllergy effective as a tool? The key features of the SmartStartAllergy tool that may explain this are as follows: it acts as a parental reminder to introduce peanut through the 3 main points of contact (6, 9, and 12 months); it sends text messages encouraging peanut introduction supported by research; it promotes a credible website to parents to support parental peanut introduction; it provides messages from a credible source; and it collects information about parent-reported reactions and alerts the general practice.…”

“…The fact that SmartStartAllergy is a parental reminder to introduce peanut is unlikely to be a key contributing factor to its success, as monthly text messages to parents in the randomized control trial did not significantly influence parental introduction of common allergens. 25 When a parent responds that he or she has not introduced peanut, SmartStartAllergy sends a text message indicating that there is evidence to support peanut introduction to prevent development of peanut allergy and a link to the NAITB website is provided. A previous study reported that a website providing information about infant feeding for allergy prevention containing the ASCIA logo would be considered credible by parents 16 and that web-based information is a preferred method of accessing information.…”

“…A previous study reported that a website providing information about infant feeding for allergy prevention containing the ASCIA logo would be considered credible by parents 16 and that web-based information is a preferred method of accessing information. 16 , 26 A key difference between the weblink provided by SmartStartAllergy and the BabyEATS study 25 is that the link provided by SmartStartAllergy is a link to the NAITB website, which was developed specifically for parents. 16 Furthermore, general practitioners were considered a useful source of information by mothers and partners, with 83.2% reporting that information coming from a trusted and reliable source is very important.…”

“…The EarlyNuts and BabyEATS studies collected information regarding frequency of consumption, thereby providing valuable insight as to whether, peanut is kept in the infant's diet once it has been introduced. 20 , 25 The SmartStartAllergy program has the ability to collect follow-up information, and this would be a useful addition to the tool. Furthermore, SmartStartAllergy does not currently collect information about whether parents click on the weblink to the NAITB website that is provided in the text messages.…”

The Australian Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study (OzFITS) 2021: Highlights and Future Directions

“…Caregivers are also advised to give their infant potential food allergens regularly (twice weekly) once introduced to prevent food allergies from developing [ 13 ]. In a South Australian study [ 14 ], we found most caregivers introduced allergens by 1 year, but many were not regularly exposing their infant to potential allergens.…”