"preventing" food intolerences with no 2?

[Mashi]

I don't like nuts so afraid will be going down the avoiding nuts direction, just for that reason!

That's what I mean when I say I decided to just eat a normal diet, iyswim.  If someone had told me that eating olives in pregnancy would prevent certain problems or have certain benefits etc, I would still not eat olives, they make me gag!  You do what you can do and that's about that!

[Mom to M&M]

I've often wondered this as well. DD was dairy intolerant until about one and I did drink quite a bit of milk while pregnant with her. I didn't drink milk (didn't want it) when pregnant with DS and he was fine with milk formula from the get-go BUT does reaction to the squash/gourd family. Go figure.

In Israel, young babies have peanuts from a young age (many families there give their teething babies a peanut-based snack called Bamba to chew on) and there is a very low rate of peanut allergies there. I've also heard a theory that the three main reasons food allergies are increasing so much is because of (1) our hyper-overclean, anti-germ society - so much anti-bacterial this and that, etc; (2) too many pesticides and chemicals in our food and (3) too many shots/immunizations these days. With babies being immunized, at least in the US, for everything from Hep B, flu, chickenpox, etc - the immune system is overstimulated and finds something else (in this case food) to attack.

Haven't decided what I think yet but it sure is interesting.

[EloysH]

just wanted to chime in there abuot both sides having strong evidence either way.

I tend to follow my local research unit at the Sydney Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.  The hopsital allergy unit closest to me advocates avoiding allergins/intolerance foods when pregnant in the 2nd and 3rd trimester  for women who have a high risk of baby developing an allergy or food intolerance.  They have published several studies following pregnant women in this high risk group and the outcomes for those babies of the women with restricted maternal diets were less likely to develop allergies and food intolerances than the group of women who ate unrestricted.  But again, you could find many studies saying the opposite!

I do feel though that with both my boys I craved wheat and dairy when pregant and ate and drank alot more milk than usual, and both turned out with intolerances    Maybe chance, maybe not.

[Shdef]

It really is difficult to say.

Mind you, asthma, eczema, hayfever, allergies have very very much a north-south connection, a weather thing as well.

While in NZ, Scotland and Kanada 37% of the children suffer from asthma, in Germany it's 10%. In Bulgaria, Israel or Turkey it's below 5%. The climate has a huge effect, so only really countries with the same climate can be compared in methods of allergy prevention.