Healthy Discoveries: Peanuts during pregnancy may lead to later allergy

Healthy discoveries

A study found that the children of mothers who ate a lot of peanuts during pregnancy may be at an increased risk of developing an allergy to the nut -- and the more peanuts the mothers ate, the larger the chances --.

But it is still unclear if a mother's exhaustion of peanuts can truly cause the real and potentially fatal allergy that appears to be on the rise, presently affecting nearly 1% of children.

Scott Sicherer of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and a team of colleagues at five locations across the United States studied more than 500 babies between 3 and 15 months old who probable had a egg or milk allergy but no known peanut allergy. Most hadn't yet tried to eat peanuts.

" More than a quarter displayed a forceful reaction in a peanut "sensitivity" test, with children of mothers who had expended peanuts during pregnancy having about three times the odds of showing this potential indication of an allergy." A study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found.

The more peanuts mothers ate during pregnancy, the larger her child's chance of a positive test -- although consuming peanuts while breast-feeding didn't appear to have a significant effect--.

Sicherer and his team noted that the research didn't show a clear cause and impact relationship, and that the children in the study only underwent blood tests for peanut sensitivity, which isn't the same as an allergy diagnosis.

His team is pursuing to follow the children to define what allergies might come and go.

The lack of clarity on the question has left many women confused.

"I have had mothers say that they ate a lot of peanut and think they caused a peanut allergy, and I have had other mothers say they evaded and wonder why their child has an allergy," Sicherer told Reuters Health in an email.

"I think that we unluckily have to say that we don't yet know a sure answer. But the good part of that conclusion is that mothers shouldn't necessarily have a guilty feeling about their past diet decisions."

Guidance on maternal peanut consumption has varied over the last decade.

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a recommendation in 2000 that women deem avoiding peanuts while pregnant and breastfeeding if one of the parents or a sibling had allergies, but withdrew it in 2008.

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