when can I give peanut products to a 2.5 year old when I have asthma?

[MoaningMirtle]

confused by advice

thanks all xxx

I can't remember whether it's 3 or 5 (when I was advised). Although aren't they now saying that you shouldn't avoid peanuts in pregnancy - that it's counter-productive? Does this go for LOs also?

Will watch with interest.

AFAIK should wait till 5 if you have asthma, excema, or other allergies in the family.

The advide with DD one was to try nuts after 1 but not to have whole nuts until 3. With dd2 the advice was to try nuts after 3 and whole nuts at 5. Goodness knows what it is now!

really?

when dd2 had terrible eczema as a tiny baby (started at 5 weeks), teh dermatology unit at the hosptial prescribed peabut oil for her head which we had to smear on and cover in bandaging every night.

Isn't that odd? We questioned it at the time, were asked 'has she had any reaction?', we said no and that was that

DH (a GP) told me last week that all this nut avoidance if you have allergies/asthma is all stuff and nonsense. I did't follow him up on where the new advice/evidence came from though. BMJ might have something, or BJGP....will ask him when he gets in.

sorry to clarify, keeping your DC away from nuts if you (the mother) has allergies is a waste of time.

But let me check with him first before it becomes MN gospel (if there is such a thing).

I must read mor eon it. dd2 had awful eczema, now has asthma and was liberally doused in peanut oil on expert medical advice.

must admit, some of this nut stuff does seem to be going too far

Here's a letter in the BMJ about it. Interesting stuff. Good research on this seems to be lacking (isn't it always).

sounds sensible, slubbers

Oh, I would love not to have to worry about this. Have been off peanut butter since mid-2004 as have been permanently pg and/or bf since then, and I really really miss it...

why don't you eat it, berol?

I have asthma.

Who says you shouldn't eat it though? I thought slubber was saying little rezearch has been done

I always (up to now) thought you were supposed to steer clear in the case of 'asthma/allergies in the family'.

enjoy it!

oh, I will

conflicting evidence so major research study underway to provide answers. By the time a child reaches 3 they have probably been exposed to traces of peanut in chocolate, ice-cream or other foods anyway.

My gp said wait till 7 for whole nuts because of the chocking risk.

If you must introduce nuts early then personally I'd suggest you rub some on skin before letting them eat any. Also have a bottle of anti-histamine to hand.

I'm confused now, that BMJ article was written in 1996 - surely GPs have more recent studies to go on?

Problem with studies into this kind of thing is logistics - you'd ideally want two groups of pregnant women and small children, one group to avoid peanuts etc and the other to eat them. If your premise is that one of these groups is likely to develop potentially fatal allergies as a result of your actions, getting people involved in the study can prove a little tricky. Thus the controversy. But advice to avoid peanuts during pregnancy and weaning runs counter to what is known about how allergies develop. Also, pregnant women in the UK have been advised to avoid peanuts since 1998; the number of reported nut allergies in the UK hugely increased between 2001-2005 (this didn't happen in countries where the avoid peanuts advice isn't given). So there could be a causal link between avoiding peanuts during and children developing the allergy, but it's not been proven conclusively.

if there was good evidence one way or the other a study wouldn't be ethical. There isn't good evidence.

Who says that nut allergy rates have increased? Not the professor in Liverpool quoted earlier up the thread. Reported rates may have increased because of greater awareness. One study on the Isle of Wight showed an increase.

One large study has suggested government advice wasn't widely followed initially anyway - see below - although asking women years later if they ate nuts in pregnancy relies on their memory and we all know about pregnancy brain.

Where is the evidence that advice is contrary to what is known about how allergies develop? Very little is known!

What happens elsewhere needs to be interpreted with caution. The peanuts eaten in other countries are not generally treated in the same way as peanuts eaten here - and they are less allergenic.

No disresprect intended but the average GP knows nothing more about allergy than what he reads in the paper. People die in this country from nut allergy because they were given poor advice.

1. The impact of government advice to pregnant mothers regarding peanut avoidance on the prevalence of peanut allergy in United Kingdom children at school entry. Hourihane JO, Aiken R, Briggs R, Gudgeon LA, Grimshaw KE, DunnGalvin A, Roberts SR.

Infection Inflammation and Repair, University of Southampton.

I gave ds peanut butter a few months before his 2nd birthday and he had a reaction. I really wish that I hadn't. I feel so guilty as I think that if I hadn't done that he wouldn't have a nut allergy now. I don't know if that's true or not, I suppose because I feel bad, I don't like to look into it.
I have asthma (as he later developed) and he had excema too.

berolina - no good evidence to show avoiding nuts in pregnancy has any impact. BUT some evidence that having more fish and having probiotics in at least the later months helps. I wish the things that can help got more publicity.

From recent reoprts I've read they say that there's no need to avoid peanuts in pregnancy and breastfeeding if there are no allergies but if you have allergies/asthma etc then you should still follow the old advice of avoiding. I have asthma, as does dd, so I avoided peanuts whilst pregnant and now while I'm breastfeeding. I believe there are studies ongoing but the results won't be known for about 7 years as they will take that long to finish.

I also believe that in places where they eat a lot of peanuts ie America then the incidence of nut allergies is lower so it's thought that eating them while pregnant and breastfeeding is helpful rather than harmful. Nothing is certain yet of course but that's initial findings. Until the end of the research it's best to avoid peanuts when you have allergies though but that may prove to be wrong, they just don't know yet.