Free to Feed

Durham, North Carolina, United States

An over-the-counter allergen test that identifies various food proteins in breast milk. The users are both breastfeeding mothers who suspect infant food allergy/intolerance as well as breastfeeding mothers who wish to deliberately introduce food allergens to their infant early and often as recommended by the AAP. These women understand and appreciate the benefits of nursing as the healthiest, natural form of infant nutrition. This will be the first product to allow mothers, pediatricians, and lactation consultants the ability to evaluate human milk for allergens in real time. These users will be supported with the Free to Feed app. Mothers will annotate which allergens are present in addition to the date and time of milk expression and nursing/feed. Parents can also record any symptoms which will allow correlative and comprehensive data to assist medical professionals in determining the culprit. This data will be compiled in a summary page which can be shared with medical professionals. The number of reported food intolerance symptoms has spiked, and our understanding of early immune development is subsequently evolving. Converse to previous recommendations to avoid early top food allergen introduction, recent studies have shown early and sustained introduction to the infant diet may influence the risk of allergic or autoimmune disease for those patients who do not already exhibit allergic symptoms before one year of age. A meta-analysis of 146 studies concluded that early introduction was associated with a moderately lower risk of developing egg or peanut allergy. This has shifted the AAP peanut and egg recommendations without providing mothers with the tools to effectively introduce.