Allergies just when pregnant??

[MrsMcJnr]

I am pg with my 3rd child and have had two horrible anaphylactic shocks in the last two months. It seems that I have become highly allergic to the peanut and soya groups of food but in addition to those I have been told to avoid all nuts, all pulses and most breads. I am scared to eat! Apparently they cannot narrow it down further until after I have had the baby and my drs think it is unlikely that the allergies will go away after that. Anyone else become allergic to things suddenly like this?

[ChocaMum]

Oh you poor thing, how awful. I haven't had things as bad as you but I'm also pregnant and as a child I use to have bad eczema, asthma and food allergies I had grown out of. And during this pregnancy unlike my previous pregnancy my eczema and asthma have come back and quite bad, and also I've had a few episodes of my throat feeling tight and uncomfortable after eating certain foods. The immune system is surpressed during pregnancy but I don't know much more I'm afraid.

Good luck, it sounds really scary what you're going through. I hope you bet a bit more help soon.

[Acekicker]

Yep - allergies can arise or disappear in pregnancy. I was allergic to milk all my life (vomiting, rashes etc), it disappeared totally when pregnant (and still hasn't come back yet). I did however develop an allergy to elastoplasts etc when I was pregnant which I'd never had before (that is much milder now though).

It's to do with how the immune system acts differently when you are pregnant - similar things happen with MS sufferers who generally find that their MS is much better when pregnant.

You poor thing though as anaphylactic shocks are scary at the best of times, never mind when you are pregnant. Have you been given epi-pens now? I would insist that after you've had the baby on being tested for allergies - you may need to leave it a good while though ie until after you've stopped breast-feeding etc. I would also ask for regular (eg annual) testing after that. I have a horrible feeling that 6 years after my son was born my milk allergy is returning (and the elastoplast one getting better) as I'm starting to get the horrible sick feeling (but have only had the rash once) sometimes after a lot of cream/milk/etc.