Husband allergic to nuts and eggs, should I avoid them while I'm pregnant?

[pixsix]

I've only just found out that I'm pregnant with my first child and haven't been to the doctor yet. I wondered if I could get some early advice from MNers.

My husband is severely allergic to nuts and eggs. Although he has not had a bad reaction for some years, when he was younger he was often in hospital due to severe reactions.

I'm wondering if I should completely avoid nuts and eggs while I'm pregnant? Has anyone had any advice about this?

Thanks in advance from a nervous first-timer.

there is a lot of nut allergy in my family so I avoided nuts during pregnancy.

dh has nut allergy so i avoided nuts for both pregnancies. i think it's recommended that you do avoid them.

Thanks for such a quick reply hercules1 I think you're right and I will def avoid nuts.
I tend not to eat them much any way so that my husband doesn't accidently come in to contact with them.

I think I eat eggs a lot more though because they are ingredients in so many things. I guess maybe it's just safer to avoid them though?

Thanks annemarie29. Do you mind me asking if your children inherited the nut allergy?

i haven't tested it tbh. ds is 3 so looking into proper allergy testing and dd is only 8 weeks so too young to test.

hi pixsix

i saw my midwife the other day for the first time and asked her about nuts as i love peanuts and was always lead to believe that u couldnt eat them while pg, then my dr told me u could. my midwife told me u can eat them UNLESS u or ur partner has allergys to nuts has asthma, hayfever or excema.

so sorry to say it but i think that includes u.

hope that helps u.

Thanks hansnava, no more peanut butter for me for a while!

My ds is now 12 and has inherited nut allergy from dh. I did eat peanut butter through pregnancy but there was no guidance then, but I also ate it when I was pregnant with dd and she has no allergies.

not really any evidence to show avoiding food helps. However there IS evidence that probiotics in the last weeks of pregnancy and when breastfeeding reduce the risks of your child developing allergies. I just wish I'd known that when pregnant!

BTW you don't inherit allergy to a specific food although you can inherit allergic tendencies. So when weaning you'll need to be watchful/ keep a bottle of piriton syrup handy for any food. But severe allergie are still a low proportion of the population, the chances are your child will be OK.

Thanks Christywhisty and tatt. I will definitely try probiotics.

my dh has peanut allergy and was terrified at the thought of me eating peanuts when pregnant so I didn't. Never asked docs etc though. We never have them in the house so DD is unlikely to be offered any in the near future and when we give her some it will be in the doctors surgery just in case!

the problem with allergies that you are usually fine the first time and they can occur at any time. My ds ate peanuts, nuts etc until he was 4 with no problem.

My husband has asthma and eczema so I avoided peanuts while pregnant with DS1, as the advice recommended.

I don't like nuts other than peanuts really anyway but I like Kormas (almonds) and always enjoyed a particular supermarket curry which contained cashews. I checked with my midwife, and she said to go ahead, it was only peanuts I had to avoid.

When DS's eczema was bad, I had worked out he was allergic to milk and suspected egg also - then was horrified to find that the cream I was putting on his poor sore weeping skin contained peanut oil. This was BEFORE it was in the news about creams containing peanut oil but you don't have to be an expert to work out that if you are not supposed to be eating something, then you shouldn't put it on broken skin either.

DS1 was eventually allergy tested and was allergic to milk, egg, peanuts, almonds and cashews.

When pg with DD and DS2 I avoided all nuts like the plague but ate milk and eggs. DD not allergic to anything, am getting signs that DS2 will be milk and egg allergic.

My advice would be yes avoid nuts, and avoid eggs as much as you can, IF you can. It tends to be raw/lightly cooked egg that causes the worst reactions, I wonder if that means you would be ok eating well-cooked egg? Perhaps your GP could advise.

At least if you decide not to eat eggs you know from your husband's diet what you have to avoid. Good luck!

you should definately avoid all kinds of nuts during pregnancy if you or your partner has a proper allergy to them.

Thanks for all the advice everyone, I will def avoid nuts and eggs as far as possible. Thankyou!

Pixsix I feel for you. I love peanut butter, but mw advised to avoid peanuts during pg if either side of the family has "atopic" allergies - that's stuff like hayfever and eczema. Since me, DH, FIL all have hayfever, FIL is allergic to house dust, Mum & I are allergic to beestings and me & my dad have exzema and psoriasis,and dad was asthmatic that's peanuts out for me for a few months. I'd kill for a peanut butter and jam buttie.

I'd definitely go for the probiotics (yakult did me) as there is good evidence that this helps avoid children becoming atopic. I did that for my second child and she's got NO allergies at all, my first child (C) is really severe ...
good luck!
Tx

You're OK to eat eggs while preg if they're well cooked; and you're not meant to give them to babies at all until they're over 1 (or maybe 2? doc will tell you). In your case, I'd say stay off them until you've checked with doctor.

That's really helpful, thanks taniashort. I'll start on the yakult asap!

Thanks Barnstable I haven't been eating any boiled/fried etc eggs but I have had the odd piece of cake and other things which have eggs in. I guess I should really avoid eggs completely if there's any chance that they could cause the baby future problems. I will ask the midwife when I have my booking in appointment in 2 weeks and stay away from eggs til then.

Have no advice for pregnancy, but would remind you that exclusive breastfeeding (ie giving nothing but breastmilk) for as long as possible after birth is the best defence against allergies of all kinds.

It might be interesting to find out how your dh was fed as a baby. Some one I know with many allergies was given no breastmilk at all, and solids on Day 4!!!

The point is that the infant gut is designed only to digest breastmilk, and giving anything else before weaning is taking a risk.

actually elasticwoman there is evidence now that prolonging exclusive breastfeeding actually raises the chances of allergies.

Evidence from whom? Nestle?

The UK government guidance is only peanuts should be avoided if there is any family history of allergy

no, there is at least 2 research papers recently showing this.