Advice on allergies when pregnant

[Teapig]

I've just found out I'm pregnant and I'm wondering whether there is anything I can do to lessen the chances of LO being allergic. Daft line of thinking I know as it's all down to genetis but I'm wondering whether or not to restrict my diet.

With DD I didn't restrict, had no idea about allergies then, but obviously avoided the stuff you have to when preggers. DD is severly allergic to dairy and egg and has shown a reaction to some treenuts through skin pricks. She showed 6 allergies until some recent food challenges.

Is there anything you did differently when pg with number 2 or am I beingd really daft?

Teapig,
You're not being daft.... There is something! Latest research shows that having probiotics during your pregnancy will reduce the risk of having a 2nd one with allergies. It also shows that if you give your allergic child probiotics, it will reduce the 'average' age that they will grow out of the allergies that they do have. We use Symprove in our house (i take the full dose daily, not the maintenance dose, just because i'd rather get the best chance for this next one); DS2 (allergy child) takes a full dose as well; the rest of the family tend to take the 'maintenance' dose (note that the kids maintenance dose is smaller than the adult's one).

Symprove is not cheap, but it's worth doing your research to see how much of the bacteria is actually active once it gets to your gut, before you spend money on probiotics (also, in our case, it's pretty much the only probiotic that allergy child can have). I bought my latest batch yesterday from bodykind as it was the cheapest i could see - with the addition of having buy 8 bottles, get 4 free (and you don't need to order all of them at once).

Best of luck with your pregnancy!

PS. i should explain i'm 6 months pregnant; hence the symprove for myself..

There's some evidence that allergies are related to bacterial exposure (ie less exposure more allergies) so while you can't do anything about that when pregnant, it apparently helps to not force the baby to be too clean - let them be on the floor etc.

Also I agree with Mayfair, gut health can help with allergies. If you can avoid antibiotics while pregnant, do (obviously not if it's medically essential though).

I second subtlety .... apparently farm babies have much less allergies than city babies! Having said that, my DS has first signs almost from birth.... but then i know kids who've developed allergies at about 8 years old....

In case you're interested, I got the info above from Adam Fox at his talk at the Allergy and Free From show (and also at the professional's training that UCH does sometimes). I think he's also talking at the Allergy UK conference in May... though I'm due the following day, so i'm not sure i'll be at that one :-)

Thanks for the advice on probiotics and bacterial exposure. I work in the city and live a town so need to make sure I get out to the countryside plenty. I will definitely start taking probiotics too.

I think the probiotic advice is good. The baby gets their first population of gut flora from the mother so it seems that your gut health is a crucial part of the picture.

If you have any history of repeated infections, eczema, asthma, hay fever, allergies, repeated antibiotics, yeast infections, then it is possible that your gut bacteria is not in balance.

My DS2 was probably born with a terrible colonization of citrobacta and another one I can't remember and we are still fighting allergies. If I had my time over, with the benefit of all I now know, I would have had a detailed bacteria and parasite analysis done privately. I saw a couple of nutritionists when I was pregnant as my elder son had problems but I wish I had pushed harder. If you end up having antibiotics around the birth or have a cesarean section then the risks are higher.