first child has allergies - pregnant again what shuld I avoid?

[alison222]

Ds has allergies to various foods. I'm currently 35 weeks pregnant with no 2.
The dietician at the hospital seemed to think that I should avoid these foods whilst breastfeeding, but nit while pregnant. The midwife diasgrees and seems to think I shold have avoided them all the way through pregnancy. ( abit late to tell me now) Does anyone have any experience of this or know where I can find any research into it whild I am trying to contact DS's paedeatrician to get a more definitive answer?

Apologies for awful typing above DS trying to help!!!

My first has allergies (peanut and milk), too. When my second (now 15 months) was a few weeks old, he started showing signs of being allergic to milk. I trotted off to the the allergist to ask her opinion and came out very happy I hadn't been there before. She is a wonderful doctor, but I have the feeling that she would have had me eat only rice from the time I conceived and then introduced foods under controlled cirmcumstances one at a time. The thing is, the doctors' don't really know what's going on with allergies, what causes them and how babies will react. They are dealing with statistics and are trying to lower your child's chances of having allergies while at the same time not causing harm by denying you or her foods. It seems that everyone has not only a different theory, but also a different idea of what is too "chancy" -- ie, they can see the same set of data and walk away with vastly differing thoughts on what can safely be eaten. It's all in the way a person defines safely.

Here's what I did: saw my doctor when it seemed that the baby was allergic to milk; did a proper food elimination trial to prove that he was; tried milk again a few months later (I tried it, he was breastfeeding) and he still had the allergy; tried milk again a few months later, he was ok and then I gave him a little bit, food challenge style (ie, wipe a little under his lower lip, if no reaction, give him a tiny bit, if no reaction, give him a bit more, etc) and he was fine. The only thing I don't eat are peanuts, but I don't eat peanuts anyway because my elder son is so allergic to them.

My advice is to not worry about eating anything that your elder son doesn't have an anaphylactic reaction to and even if he does, unless it's nuts or peanuts, then just keep an eye out. Actually, I shouldn't call that advice. That's just what I did.

Hope it goes well.

Alison
I have same issues as you..... I have read too in various places that you should avoid suspected foods in pregnancy too, as the babies' system should not be exposed to them till as late as possible in their life which includes in utero.....Problem is, I cannot remember where I read this.
My overall feeling is that no-one actually knows what the solution to the whole allergy debate is and all they every give out is an opinion, which of course varies from person to person.
In the meantime, I have just tried to minimise my intake of certain foods, (ie, soya, dairy) and not actually get myself into a panic about it, although, according to the theories, this would not be good enough...it should be completely eliminated. Let me know how you get on anyway, and how old is ds? My dd is 15 months and I am 11weeks...or rather my baby is 11 weeks old!
Sorry to not ave been of much help!

Don't know about in utero, but there is evidence that eating live yoghurt and taking lots of beneficial probiotic bacteria (eg Yakult and supplements) in the later stages of pregnancy and while b/feeding gives your newborn baby very good gut flora which helps with digestion and seems to help prevent allergies. I thought it might be nice to think of eating more of something rather than less!

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DS is 25 months, and is allergic to eggs, soya,sesame almonds and cod. He had quite bad excema on his face and hands plus legs while I was breastfeeding, but the doctor told me at the time that she didn't think it would be from my diet. By the time I stopped feeding him at 10 months he had quite a varied diet, but was beginning to show signs of allergy to ,as I now know, sesame (hummus which he loved brought him out in red weals and he sctached until it bled). At about 12 or 13 months I managed to get the doctor to refer me to the hospital for allergy testing as things were getting worse with time At the time he was eating more bread and milk. We eventually worked out that all supermarket bread (virtually) has soya flour in it and this was the problem, The jury is still out on the dairy - we are gradually re-introducing it. So far butter and youghurt seem OK and small amounts in biscuits or other baked foods seem ok.

Aloha I like the thought of eating lots of youghurt - but this is dairy and should I be avoiding it???
The jury is out?

The idea (as I recall) is to get the probiotics in the baby's system before they eat anything! So the good gut flora passes on from you during the birth process and in the early breastfeeds to prevent allergies from happening. Depends what the child is allergic to, of course. You can take probiotics in supplement form as well as in Yakult, live yoghurt etc etc.

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