Dr Emma Derbyshire and Bridget Halnan discuss the importance of eggs in maternal and infant diets, and how eggs provide key nutrients in a cost-effective way.
Authors:
Dr Emma Derbyshire, registered public health nutritionist and founder of independent scientific consultancy Nutritional Insight, and
Bridget Halnan, senior lecturer – specialist community public health nursing, ARU, and fellow of the Institute of Health Visiting.
Conflict of Interest Statement:
The authors, Dr Emma Derbyshire and Bridget Halnan, are independent advisors to the British Egg Industry Council on scientific issues. The writing of this article reflects the views of the authors alone, and the funding source had no role in the preparation or submission of the article, nor of the research on which the article is based.
RESEARCH SUMMARY
Eggs are a nutritious and cost-effective food, but there are apprehensions about their consumption in pregnancy and infancy, as well as other stages in life.
This integrative review, which uses systematic approaches, explores the latest literature and guidance on egg consumption in pregnancy and infancy only.
A scientific search identified 22 key studies. Four sets of relevant dietary guidance were also reviewed.
Evidence shows that eggs provide key nutrients including choline, vitamins D, vitamin B12 and folate during pregnany and infancy.
Healthcare practitioners can play a key role in explaining that egg consumption in early life may help to bridge nutrient gaps, prevent allergy, augment breast milk composition and contribute to child development and growth.
INTRODUCTION
Given the complex physiological changes that occur, pregnancy, breastfeeding and infancy are all key life stages when nutrition is profoundly important (Derbyshire, 2011). There has been rising interest in the role of optimised nutrition across pregnancy and during early life, which refers to the time period from the fetal stages to the first two years of life after birth (also referred to as the first 1,001 days) (DHSC, 2021; Ren et al, 2025). Optimised nutrition during this time is crucial to healthy development, and health professionals are important gatekeepers of nutritional information (Beluska-Turkan et al, 2019).
Eggs are an important basic wholefood (food that has been processed or refined as minimally as possible) thanks to their array of nutrients, bioactive compounds and high digestibility (Rehault-Godbert et al, 2019). Given the upsurge in ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption, which can form as much as 17% of the total diet in pregnancy (Puig-Vallverdu et al, 2022) and nearly two thirds (61%) of children’s total energy intake (Iacobucci, 2023), there is scope for health professionals to communicate the nutritional advantages of natural whole foods, such as eggs. Eggs are also regarded as modern Palaeolithic (Paleo) wholefood that our hunter-gatherer ancestors’ most likely consumed as part of the dietary pattern that helped to fuel evolutionary increases in brain size (Daley et al, 2025).
They are an important provider of essential amino acids and considered a “complete protein” (Puglisi and Fernandez, 2022). Egg yolk provides a range of nutrients including vitamin A, B1, B2, B5, B6, B9, B12 and D, and the egg white vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, B9 (folate), and B12 (cobalamin) (Rehault-Godbert et al, 2019). Eggs also provide choline, which is an important nutrient during pregnancy and lactation, as large amounts are delivered to the foetus and infant through the placenta and breastmilk (Zeisel, 2013).
Eggs are also an important provider of fatty acids, with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) thought to be critical for brain development and visual acuity in early life (Lauritzen et al, 2016), with this nutrient believed to work in synergy with choline (Mun et al, 2019) provided by eggs. They naturally provide vitamin B12, which can contribute towards dietary requirements that are higher during pregnancy and lactation (Obeid et al, 2019). They also contain minerals including calcium, phosphorous, potassium, iron, zinc, selenium, magnesium and manganese (Rehault-Godbert et al, 2019).
Confusion around eggs remains, thanks to previous advice to avoid them in pregnancy and weaning because of allergy and food safety concerns, for which evidence and advice has changed and evolved (Rehault-Godbert et al, 2019; Sarno et al, 2021). Outdated advice could impact on egg intake in pregnancy and infancy when nutrients provided from eggs could be important to enhance health. Within the healthcare practice, cultural norms, practices, beliefs and misinformation may also act as barriers to egg consumption during these crucial life-stages (Schnefke et al, 2019). Given this, the present review aims to explore the latest evidence related to egg consumption, nutrient intakes and food allergy risk across these key life stages and put any confusions into context.
METHODOLOGY
An integrated review using a systematic approach was undertaken. Using PubMed, articles published in the past six years (2019-2025) were identified. English-language, human studies were included. Search terms included “egg and nutrient intake pregnancy”, “egg, nutrient intake and lactation/breastfeeding”, “egg intake and infancy/early life/allergy”. Google Scholar, www.ClinicalTrials.gov and reference lists were also searched. Multi-interventions were excluded. Studies that did not include an outcome related to nutrient intakes or allergy risk were also excluded. Studies that were a pilot or protocol were excluded.
Guidelines from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Food Standards Agency (FSA), the National Health Service (NHS) and Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) reviewed for organisational evidence and health policies related to eggs.
RESULTS
Pregnancy
Seven key studies were identified (Table 1). First focusing on nutrient intakes, the Canadian Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition (APrON) study found that only 23% of pregnant women (n=2189) met adequate intake recommendations for choline and 10% postpartum, with egg consumption increasing the likelihood of meeting these recommendations (Letourneau et al, 2022).
In an Australian study, median pregnancy choline intakes were lower than the European Food Safety Authority recommendations of 480 mg/day (362 mg/day), and eggs were the most significant contributor to choline intake, providing about 17% of daily choline (EFSA ,2016; Probst et al, 2022).
Researchers from Kansas medical centre, using data from n=241 maternal and infant dyads, found that egg intake – a food source of docosahexaenoic acid, choline, lutein and zeaxanthin – was associated with infant brain function, which was measured using auditory and visual assessments at one-month and six-months of age (Christifano et al, 2025). An earlier publication by the same research team analysing data from n=202 pregnant women also found that fetal neurodevelopment (measured using biomagnetometry at 32 and 36 weeks in pregnancy) was associated with dietary egg intake and the nutrients found within eggs, which again included docosahexaenoic acid, choline, lutein and zeaxanthin (Christifano et al, 2023).
Some research focused on gestational weight gain or gestational diabetes mellitus risk (Mitran et al, 2024; Petry et al, 2019). One study found that women with a healthier pre-pregnancy body mass index were more likely to consume eggs and egg dishes which, in turn, was associated with a reduced likelihood of excessive pregnancy weight gain, possibly due to these women having more balanced dietary patterns (Mitran et al, 2024).
Research undertaken by scientists from the University of Cambridge found that the frequency of egg intake during pregnancy (which again could be related to the intake of a healthier diet in pregnancy) appeared protective against gestational diabetes mellitus and led to reductions in insulin secretion (Petry et al, 2019).
At Harvard School of Public Health, a higher dietary frequency of eggs (any egg intake) was significantly protective of very preterm births when data was compared against no egg intake (Kamenju et al, 2022).
Breastfeeding, infancy and early childhood
Eleven key studies were identified, focusing on eggs and breastfeeding, infancy, childhood or allergy risk. Three publications measured the nutrient density of children’s diets (those <two years of age) and found that eating eggs was linked to higher daily intakes of energy, protein, total fat, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fat, α-linolenic acid, choline, DHA, lutein + zeaxanthin, vitamin D, potassium, phosphorus, and selenium (Papanikolaou and Fulgoni, 2019).
A modelling publication found that eggs were a cost-efficient food for children, providing around 2.7% of protein in the daily diet, 3.8% vitamin A, 5% vitamin D and about 12% choline (Papanikolaou and Fulgoni, 2020). Spanish scientists researching food and nutrient intakes across the first two years of life (in infants aged 18 and 24 months) found that egg intakes were lower than recommended at both time periods (Gomez-Martin et al, 2021).
A secondary data analysis with UK infants aged 6 to 12 months found that just over half (54%) of infants had ever been offered eggs, and average egg intake frequency was one to two times per week, increasing with age (Rowan and Brown, 2023). Interestingly, a US population‐based survey of 3062 US caregivers of a child between seven months and three and a half years found that only 15.5% of caregivers introduced eggs before seven months, 66.4% before one year and one-third did not introduce eggs at all by the age of one (Venter et al, 2022). A large meta-analysis using data from 3575 children aged six months to six years found that those eating eggs had better height, length and weight (Larson et al, 2023) than those who didn’t consume them. However, an inconclusive Cochrane review investigating animal-source food in relation to growth and development yielded uncertain results, due to imbalances between control and intervention groups (Eaton et al, 2019).
With regard to allergy risk, a large randomised controlled trial with 380 breastfed infants, where at least one of two parents had allergic disease, found that the maternal consumption of one egg per day during the first five days after delivery did not impact on infant egg allergy development, nor sensitisation to egg white when compared with mothers who completely abstained from consuming eggs (Nagakura et al, 2023).
Research with 1252 children showed that the risk of maternal-reported egg allergy at age six years significantly declined with infant egg consumption frequency at 12 months of age: 2.05% for infants not eating eggs, 0.41% for those eating eggs <2 times per week, and 0.21% for those eating eggs ≥2 times per week, indicating a potentially protective role, though over-reporting could have been possible (Wen et al, 2023). In cases where single food allergies exist (such as egg allergy), research shows that these tend not to influence children’s growth, and catch-up growth tends to be achieved (Poredos et al, 2023).
Most recently, a multicentre cohort study using data from 420 infants (27 with egg allergies at 12 months) has been undertaken by scientists at the University of Tokyo (Kishino et al, 2025). The study, which was part of the Japan Pregnancy Eating and Activity Cohort Study, found that breastfeeding-dependent egg consumption had no significant impact on infant egg allergy development at 12 months (Kishino et al, 2025). For those with eczema at six months, this was, however, affected by cutaneous exposure to egg allergens, ie. if egg proteins touch broken or sensitive skin (such as eczema), it may trigger an allergy (Kishino et al, 2025). Authors concluded that healthcare providers need to inform mothers not eating eggs due to infant egg allergy concerns that there is no firm evidence that maternal egg consumption increased the risk of this – the risk relates more to infants who have eczema and egg proteins touching broken skin (Kishino et al, 2025). This is potentially where the confusion lies.
In another recent study, South African infants were allocated to eat either one egg daily or no eggs over a period of six months. The incidence of allergic disease was 7.5% in the egg group, compared with 13.4% in the control group, implying that daily egg consumption may lower allergic sensitisation to common allergic foods (Nakiranda et al, 2025).
Further research has investigated other aspects affecting egg tolerance. A controlled randomised clinical trial found that infants with cow’s milk allergy and/or atopic dermatitis under six months of age, who ate baked eggs daily over six months, tolerated cooked eggs more frequently than those avoiding eggs (Gil et al, 2025). Studies with infants aged six to 11 months diagnosed with egg allergy found that 66.6% could tolerate foods containing baked eggs (Vilar et al. 2020). A retrospective analysis of data from children diagnosed with IgE-mediated egg allergy found that those eating baked egg products on a regular basis were more likely to outgrow egg allergy, and baked egg consumption seemed to improve tolerance to raw egg (Perez-Quintero et al, 2020).
Guidelines and recommendations
Guidelines related to eggs are included in Table 2. Regarding food safety, the Food Standards Agency updated their advice in 2017, explaining that eggs produced under the British Lion Code of Practice could be safely eaten raw or lightly cooked by pregnant women, infants and children (FSA, 2017). The UK National Health Service advises that British Lion eggs are safe for all, as they come from flocks that have been vaccinated against salmonella (NHS, 2023).
With respect to allergy, the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition advises that foods containing hens’ egg should be introduced from around six months of age, and need not be differentiated from other solid foods (SACN, 2018).
DISCUSSION
The Healthy Child Programme explains that healthy nutrition and lifestyles are important for good health and wellbeing, and healthcare professionals should work collaboratively, including with parents to help promote this (OHID, 2023). NICE guidance also explains that it is important for midwives and health visitors to provide information on the benefits of healthy eating during pregnancy, and healthy eating behaviours in babies and children from six months up to five years (IHV, 2025). During midwife and health visitor contact, many mums say they feel confused about advice around diet and nutrition (Lamb and Sanders, 2015).
Midwives and health visitors can play a key role in explaining that:
- Eggs are a cost-effective, natural food providing key nutrients needed to support a developing baby, making them an ideal food during pregnancy and early life (Rehault-Godbert et al, 2019).
- Eggs provide a wide range of vitamins and minerals.
- Some of the nutrients found in eggs may have important health and developmental roles during pregnancy.
- Eggs provide important brain nutrients such as choline (a precursor to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine), which is regarded as important for foetal brain development (Derbyshire and Obeid, 2020); and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which in synergy with choline may facilitate development in early life (Lutter et al, 2018; Mun et al, 2019).
- Hens’ eggs should be introduced from around six months of age and need not be differentiated from other solid foods. The deliberate exclusion of hens’ eggs beyond six to 12 months of age may increase the risk of allergy to the same foods (SACN, 2018).
- Once the introduction of solid food commences, based on evidence from randomised controlled trials, it is now advised to actively introduce eggs into the infant diet and continue with their consumption (Venter et al, 2023).
- Two new sets of guidance now exist – the 2017 Food Standards Agency updated guidance on eating runny eggs, and the 2018 Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition Feeding in the First Year of Life Report (FSA, 2017; SACN, 2018). Both sets of guidance confirm the suitability of Red Lion eggs, even when only lightly cooked, for feeding to young babies and pregnant women (Gray, 2019).
STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS
The present integrative review provides an update of latest scientific publications and guidance looking at egg consumption in pregnancy, infancy and early life. The evidence has been collated and put into real-life context. It is useful that a growing body of evidence has taken place in this field. Some updated randomised controlled trials have been undertaken – research that should continue. Most surveys and studies quantified habitual intakes using 24-hour dietary recalls or food frequency questionnaires, which can be subject to under- and over-reporting. It is, therefore, also useful to use biomarkers of egg intakes, as some studies did, such as docosahexaenoic acid, choline, lutein and zeaxanthin intakes (Christifano et al, 2023; Christifano et al, 2025).
Future studies could take a similar approach. More studies are now needed to look at egg intakes in relation to a greater range of maternal and infant outcomes, such as weight gain, processing speed, and visual acuity to help better establish whether it’s the eggs or nutrients/combinations of nutrients within the eggs that may be responsible.
Research looking at egg intakes and allergy risk should continue in at risk population groups. In the UK, “at risk” groups can include pregnant and breastfeeding women, children and infants, but the authors recognise that there are also other groups who could benefit from further research, such as older adults, people with chronic health conditions, those with low incomes or who are socially isolated, and people with limited sun exposure.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Midwives and health visitors can play a key role in disseminating updated nutrition information, including that related to eggs, which are a natural and cost-effective wholefood. Eggs are an important source of digestible protein and key nutrients including vitamins D, vitamin B12 (cobalamin), folate, and choline.
Eating eggs in pregnancy and early in weaning does not appear to be associated with increased infant allergy risk. It is recommended that eggs are introduced early in the weaning process, and eggs with the British Lion stamp on their shell are regarded as safe for pregnant women and babies to eat runny or raw by the UK Food Standards Agency.
Key messages for midwives and health visitors
- Pregnant women, those who are breastfeeding, infants and children fall into one of the “at risk” groups for suboptimal nutrition.
- Eggs are a cost-effective natural food, providing key nutrients needed to support optimal health for these vulnerable groups.
- Myths around egg allergy and safety remain, but are no longer substantiated by current evidence.
- Eggs produced under the British Lion Code of Practice are safe for everyone, including vulnerable groups, and can be eaten raw, runny or cooked.
- SACN states that eggs can be introduced to infants from around six months when solids are introduced, and are cost effective.
- Live attenuated vaccines, such as influenza and MMR, are grown in eggs or chick embryo cells, but the amount of protein is very low and is considered safe, even for those with severe egg allergies. Those with a past severe anaphylactic reaction (requiring intensive care) should be referred to a hospital setting.
Table 1
Key publications looking at egg consumption, maternal and infant health, published 2019-2025
| Author (year) location | Life stage (organised from pregnancy to infancy/childhood) | Type of study | Study outcome | Conclusion |
| (Christifano et al, 2025) USA | Pregnancy | A secondary analysis of the PANDA study – a RCT investigating two DHA doses | Brain function | Maternal nutrients including DHA, choline, lutein/zeaxanthin and egg intake (a source of these nutrients) were related to infant brain function. |
| (Mitran et al, 2024) Romania | Pre-pregnancy/pregnancy | Cross-sectional | Gestational weight gain | Pre-gestational BMI correlated positively with eggs and egg dishes – a balanced dietary pattern associated with a lower likelihood of insufficient pregnancy weight gain. |
| (Christifano et al, 2023), USA | Pregnancy | A secondary analysis of the PANDA study – a RCT investigating two DHA doses | Foetal neurodevelopment | Eggs and the nutrients within these showed synergistic associations with foetal neurodevelopment. |
| (Kamenju et al, 2022) Tanzania | Pregnancy | Data collected as part of a RCT | Adverse birth outcomes | Egg intake was protective of very preterm birth (RR: 0.50; 95% CI: 0.31, 0.83; p = 0.01) compared with no egg intake. |
| (Probst et al, 2022) Australia | Pregnancy | Data collected as part of a RCT | Choline intakes | Eggs contributed most significantly to choline intakes (17%). Few women met AIs for choline. |
| (Petry et al, 2019) UK | Pregnancy | Observational cohort study | Gestational diabetes mellitus risk | Frequency of egg consumption appeared protective against GDM and reductions in insulin secretion. |
| (Letourneau et al, 2022) Canada | Pregnancy and childhood | Longitudinal cohort study | Pregnancy and child outcomes | Only 23% of mothers met AI choline recommendations. Eating eggs during pregnancy increased the likelihood of meeting choline AI recommendations. |
| (Nagakura et al, 2023) Japan | Maternal diet after birth/infancy | Randomised clinical trial | Egg allergy at 12 months | At age 12 months, the MEC and MEE groups did not differ significantly in EA, indicating that egg allergy was unaffected by MEC. |
| (Kishino et al, 2025) Japan | Egg intake during lactation | Multicentre cohort study | Risk of developing egg allergy | No significant impact of breastfeeding-dependent egg consumption was observed on infants’ egg allergy development at 12 months. Infants with eczema at six months showed a greater risk of developing an egg allergy at 12 months (adjusted odds ratio, 3.59; 95% confidence interval, 1.59-8.13). |
| (Gil et al, 2025) Spain | Infancy (four to six months) | Controlled randomised clinical trial | Egg allergy | Patients under six months of age with cow’s milk allergy and/or atopic dermatitis who ate baked eggs daily for six months tolerated cooked eggs more frequently than patients who avoided eggs. |
| (Nakiranda et al, 2025) South Africa | Infancy (six to nine months) | Secondary analysis of data from a randomised controlled trial | Allergic sensitisation | The incidence of allergic disease during the study was 7.5% in the egg intervention group and 13.4% in the control group (p= .069). Complementary feeding with daily eggs may reduce allergic sensitisation to common allergenic foods. |
| (Rowan and Brown, 2023) UK | Infancy | Secondary data analysis | Egg intake | Only 54% of infants aged six to eight months had ever been offered eggs. Baby-led infants consumed eggs twice as frequently as spoon-fed infants. |
| (Wen et al, 2023) USA | Infancy/childhood | Secondary data analysis from the Infant Feeding Practices Study II | Egg allergy | Maternal-reported egg allergy risk at age six years declined significantly with infant egg consumption frequency at 12 months of age: 2.05% for infants not eating eggs, 0.41% for those eating eggs <2 times per week, and 0.21% for those eating eggs ≥2 times per week. |
| (Venter et al, 2022) USA | Infancy | Survey of 3062 caregivers | Food allergen introduction | Eggs were introduced by 15.5% of caregivers before seven months and 66.4% of caregivers before one year. One-third of caregivers were not introducing eggs by the age of one. |
| (Vilar et al, 2020) Brazil | Infancy (six to 11 months) | Cross-sectional study | Egg tolerance | 66.6% of patients with a diagnosis of egg allergy tolerated the ingestion of egg-containing foods in the oral food challenge. |
| (Eatonet al, 2019) USA | Infancy/childhood | Cochrane review of RCTs/quasi-RCTs | Growth and development | Results were inconclusive due to limited quality of evidence. |
| (Gomez-Martin et al,2021) Spain | 0 to two years | Prospective and multicentre study | Compliance with nutritional targets | Observed intakes of eggs were lower than recommended in children aged 18 and 24 months. |
| (Larson et al, 2023) USA | Childhood | Meta-analysis | Growth in children | Those in the egg intervention groups experienced significantly better height/length measurements (p < 0.01) and weight (p = 0.03) when compared to those in the control groups. |
| (Poredos et al, 2023) Slovenia | Childhood | Retrospective cohort study with longitudinal follow-up | Nutritional and growth outcomes | Children with egg allergies had normal growth and achieved catch-up growth, indicating that allergies do not compromise growth if children are supported. |
| (Papanikolaou and Fulgoni, 2020) USA | Childhood | Used cross-sectional, nationally representative NHANES data | Daily nutrient intakes | Eggs were ranked the most cost-efficient food for delivering protein, choline and vitamin A, second for vitamin E, and third for vitamin D in children. |
| (Perez-Quintero et al, 2020) Spain | Childhood | Retrospective analysis of children diagnosed with IgE-mediated egg allergy | Egg tolerance | Daily intake of baked egg in baked-egg tolerant children accelerates tolerance to raw egg. |
| (Papanikolaou and Fulgoni, 2019) USA | Childhood | Used cross-sectional, nationally representative NHANES data | Daily nutrient intakes | Children and teens eating eggs had higher daily intakes of polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and total fat, protein, α-linolenic acid, DHA, choline, lutein + zeaxanthin, vitamin D, potassium, phosphorus & selenium. |
Key: AI, adequate intakes; CI, confidence interval; DHA, docosahexaenoic acid; EA, immunoglobulin E-mediated egg allergy; GDM, gestational diabetes mellitus; MEC, maternal egg consumption; MEE, maternal egg elimination group; NHANES, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; RCT, randomised controlled trial; RR, relative risk.
Table 2
Latest egg consumption guidance
| Organisation | Life stage | Advice |
| National Health Service (NHS, 2023) | Pregnancy | Eggs produced under the British Lion Code of Practice are safe for pregnant women to eat raw or partially cooked, as they come from flocks that have been vaccinated against salmonella. |
| Food Standards Agency (FSA, 2017) | Pregnancy, infancy and childhood | Pregnant women, infants and children, can safely eat raw or lightly cooked eggs that are produced under the British Lion Code of Practice. |
| European Food Safety Authority (Castenmiller, 2019) | Infancy | Suggests hen’s egg introduction between four and six months |
| Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN, 2018) | Infancy, six-plus months | Advice on complementary feeding should state that foods containing hens’ eggs can be introduced from around six months of age and need not be differentiated from other solid foods. The deliberate exclusion of hens’ eggs beyond six to 12 months of age may increase the risk of allergy to the same foods. |
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