Pregnant Moms Who Eat Peanuts May Have Infants With Allergies

*As the winter food frenzy begins, and nuts abound in many recipies, keep your diet in mind to ensure a healthy holiday.

Pregnant women who eat peanuts are more likely to have babies prone to peanut allergies, according to the November Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

"That's because the peanut proteins they eat may circulate to the fetus, and cause an allergic response", study researcher Dr. Scott Sicherer, pediatrics professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, told My Health News Daily.

Peanut allergy is one of the most common allergies.

More than 3 million Americans, many of them children, have some kind of nut allergy. About 5% of kids have some kind of food allergy.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says the most common food allergies in kids are eggs, milk, nuts, soy, fish, wheat, peas, and shellfish.

Peanut allergies have more than tripled between 1997 and 2008, according to Sicherer, who published a study on that earlier this year also in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

There are a number of theories why peanuts cause allergies in so many people.

It's possible peanut proteins are more visible to the immune system than other types of proteins or the oils of emulsified peanut butter are highly allergenic.

The study found infants are more likely to test positive for the allergy, not necessarily to develop the allergy.

The infants in the study did not try eating peanuts to see if they had an allergy, Sicherer said.

The finding bolsters the original American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that women with a family history of allergies should  avoid eating peanut products while pregnant and breast-feeding.

That recommendation was withdrawn in 2008 because there wasn’t enough scientific evidence.

In this recent study, researchers evaluated 503 infants, ages 3 to 15 months, who had eczema or tested positive for milk or egg allergies, factors also associated with peanut allergy. None of the infants had a previous peanut allergy diagnosis.

The researchers asked the mothers whether they avoided peanuts during pregnancy altogether, or if they ate them twice a week, more than twice a week but less than daily, or daily.

Blood tests showed 140 infants had a strong sensitivity to peanuts. The researchers found the more peanuts the mothers ate during pregnancy, the more likely their infants were to test positive for the sensitivity.

The researchers plan to follow the children over time, to see if they develop a peanut allergy, or if they "outgrow" it, Sicherer said.

In Rhode Island Public Law 08-086,  now requires local school districts to develop food allergy policies and Individual Health Care Plans and Emergency Health Care Plans for students with peanut/tree nut allergies with potentially severe health consequences.

Additional Resources:

thriveri.org

Various informational and guidance materials can be found on the Health Services page or  RI Peanut Allergy Law Guidance Documents.

Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network

This website provides information and resources for schoos, as well as a document titled School Guidelines for Managing Students with Food Allergies.

Managing Life Threatening Food Allergies in Schools . This comprehensive guide from the Massachussets Department of Education provides guidelines and information for planning, implementation, and emergencies related to food allergies in schools.

For tips on dealing with your kids' allergies at school, contact the Food Allergy Network at 800-929-4040