{"id":2060,"date":"2019-04-29T16:43:14","date_gmt":"2019-04-29T15:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.norfolkhouseschool.co.uk\/nhn28\/?p=2060"},"modified":"2019-04-29T16:43:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T15:43:17","slug":"new-advice-for-the-consumption-of-eggs-in-pregnancy-and-infancy-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.norfolkhouseschool.co.uk\/nhn28\/new-advice-for-the-consumption-of-eggs-in-pregnancy-and-infancy-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"New Advice for the Consumption of eggs in Pregnancy and Infancy (2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Health Visitor Julia Headland<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The UK Government has revised its advice on the safety\nof eggs for vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, infants and young\nchildren, confirming that they are safe to eat \u2018runny\u2019 or even raw eggs,\nprovided that they are British Lion Eggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the\nGovernment\u2019s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) has reconfirmed\nthat eggs can be introduced from around 6 months when weaning begins, despite\ntheir allergenic potential. In fact, it goes on to suggest that deliberate\nexclusion or delays in introducing eggs beyond 6-12months may actually increase\nthe risk of egg allergy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NB. Further clarification is required for those infants with early onset or moderate to severe eczema, considered to be at high risk of food allergy. There is evidence to suggest that introduction to eggs at 4 months is appropriate however please discuss this with your own GP or Health Visitor before you introduce eggs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why were we wary of eggs before? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Way back in 1988, the\nDepartment of Health advised vulnerable groups of people who may be susceptible\nto the effects of blood borne disease, including pregnant women, infants and\nyoung children, to only consume eggs that had been cooked until both the yolks\nand the whites were solid (Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of\nFood (ACMSF) 1993. You may remember this as the big Salmonella scare of the\nlate 80\u2019S. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So What has changed?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salmonella was a\nmajor public health issue in 1988 when rates of salmonella linked to eggs were\nshown to be rising due to a new strain of the bacterium Salmonella enteritidis.\nThe bacterium was shown to be located in the body of the egg as opposed to only\nthe egg shell where the previous strain of salmonella had  been located. Due to the reports of\ncontamination, the UK egg industry introduced a range of measures in 1990. In\n1998, the introduction of the British Lion Code of Practice (British Egg\nIndustry Council (BEIC), 2013. This thankfully resulted in the decline of\nSalmonella infection associated with UK eggs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The core element of\nthis scheme is the vaccination of flocks of laying hens against two strains of\nSalmonella- Salmonella enteritidis and Salmonella typhimurium. The Lion Code of\nPractice comprises of over 700 auditable criteria and stringent controls throughout\nthe production chain, including strict hygiene controls in egg production\nunits, stamping of each egg with the best before date and Lion logo and regular\negg testing for Salmonella.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*The Lion Code of practice for British Lion Eggs is the only egg-specific assurance scheme to meet the exacting international accreditation standard (International Organisation for Standardisation , 2012)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nutritional Contribution of Eggs in pregnancy\nand for babies.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eggs provide many\nnutrients essential to foetal development such as high quality protein, vitamin\nD, vitamin B12, folate, choline, iodine, selenium, and long chain omega-3 fatty\nacids. They are, in fact, one of the few dietary sources of vitamin D, iodine\nand choline. They also contribute to important amounts of B vitamins and\nminerals including some iron and zinc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iodine is a nutrient that gets little attention, however according to the World\nHealth Organisation (WHO), the UK is classified as mildly iodine insufficient\nand it has been suggested that iodine is a nutrient of concern for pregnant\nwomen. Iodine is essential for adequate maternal thyroid function which is\ncritical for neurodevelopment of the foetus. In fact, there is evidence that\nsuggests that even a mild iodine deficiency is associated with delays in\nneurocognition later in childhood. Two medium sized eggs provide 50mcg of\niodine which represents 36% of the pregnancy reference nutrient intake (RNI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choline is a vitamin like compound used to make phospholipids and therefore cell\nmembranes. It is lesser known nutrient but nonetheless important in pregnancy.\nThere is much evidence that choline is important for human foetal development ,\nparticularly for the brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vitamin D. Eggs are one of the few dietary sources of vitamin Din it\u2019s most\nbioavailable form \u2013 D3. It is known that there is widespread vitamin D\ndeficiency in the UK, particularly during the winter months due to the limited\nexposure of UV light in the northern hemisphere. As a consequence, Vitamin D\nsupplementation is advised during pregnancy and lactation and for infants from\nbirth to 1 year who are breastfed or receiving less than 500mls of formula a\nday and for young children up to 4 years a day (NHS Choices 2017).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as\nsupplementation, dietary sources are also important and 2 medium eggs will\nprovide about one third of the recommended nutritional intake for pregnant or\nlactating women an one medium egg would provide 1.6mcg which is around 23% of\nthe recommended nutritional intake for children of 6 months to 3 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Long Chain Omega-3 Fatty Acids. Eggs are also a significant source of long chain\nomega 3 fatty acids, mostly in the form of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and this\nis important as DHA is essential for foetal and infant brain development and\nfunction. One medium egg contains about 70mg DHA and the adult daily\nrecommended intake is around 450mg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summary of Food Standards Agency\nrecommendations on eggs (2017)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Pregnant women, infants, young children and\nelderly people can safely eat raw or lightly cooked eggs that are produced\nunder the British Lion Code of practice.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Non Lion eggs produced in the UK, eggs from\noutside the UK, and eggs from species other than hens should always be cooked\nthoroughly for vulnerable groups.<\/strong>*The advice does not apply to severely\nimmunocompromised individuals who require medically supervised diets prescribed\nby health professionals<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Health Visitor Julia Headland The UK Government has revised its advice on the safety of eggs for vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, infants and young children, confirming that they are safe to eat \u2018runny\u2019 or even raw eggs, provided that they are British Lion Eggs. Furthermore, the Government\u2019s Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.norfolkhouseschool.co.uk\/nhn28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.norfolkhouseschool.co.uk\/nhn28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.norfolkhouseschool.co.uk\/nhn28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.norfolkhouseschool.co.uk\/nhn28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.norfolkhouseschool.co.uk\/nhn28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2060"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.norfolkhouseschool.co.uk\/nhn28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2061,"href":"https:\/\/www.norfolkhouseschool.co.uk\/nhn28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060\/revisions\/2061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.norfolkhouseschool.co.uk\/nhn28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.norfolkhouseschool.co.uk\/nhn28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.norfolkhouseschool.co.uk\/nhn28\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}