Swimming while pregnant causing asthma/eczema in child

[Paddingtonlovesmarmalade]

I've just found out I'm pregnant and plan to start swimming three to four times a week. Then I came across this article...

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/10278263/Expectant-mothers-who-swim-may-give-baby-asthma.html
In summary, it says babies whose mothers swam when pregnant are more likely to have asthma or eczema.

What are people's experiences? Did/do you swim when pregnant, and if you swam in a previous pregnancy, does your child have asthma or eczema?

Well I went swimming with dd1 and she has asthma and eczema.

but it does run in the family and I did have to work in a smoky environment so that's probably the most likely causes.

dd2 I never really swam due to complications in pregnancy. no asthma or excema. but then there was the.l smoking ban by then and passing it on isn't garuntee.

I didn't swim while pregnant with my first. No reason just didn't. He suffered with it.
Went a fair few times while pregnant with my daughter now 9months and she hasn't got anything.
I'm pg with number 3 and I've been swimming loads, I say swim I float and bob around ha x go for it x

Are you a journalist?

Thanks for the replies... It does seem to be fifty fifty...

No, I'm not a journalist, I've just have spoken to a few people who swam and there kids do have asthma and eczema. However, I can't believe that if the link was that clear, the research wouldn't have found that more conclusively. So thought I'd get other peoples experiences before I give up on the only exercise I'm likely to actually to do this pregnancy. :)

Hope I can help a little here with some pointers on the article and research...I should say I didn't swim in my first pregnancy and have in this one but (I am a scientist) I don't believe whether I swim or not by itself will have significant impact on whether my child has asthma or eczema.

1. If you think swimming is the only exercise you are likely to do seriously think about whether the many many benefits of exercise for you and baby in terms of your health and well-being are out-weighed by any perceived risks

1. The article headline in the telegraph is really misleading. The article doesn't link to the full research, but from what I have read it appears that they authors found that airborne chemicals given off by chlorine, cleaning products and cosmetics may play a contributory role in influencing susceptibility to atopic allergy (see all the caveats there that didn't make it into the headline - it is far from proven).

Lots and lots of different factors influence whether a child will have allergies, some of which you have control over but the vast majority you don't. From a biology point of view it really isn't a simple as swimming equals allergy, not swimming equals no allergy.

Everyone has to way up in their own minds what is important to them, but I would caution against giving up something that is clearly very beneficial when the additional risk from the activity is so low. Unless of course your family has a history of severe asthma or allergy, in which case the most beneficial thing you can do is talk to your doctor and do some reading on lifestyle and other factors you can modify that are proven to have an impact on whether a child will develop an allergy.

Hope this puts your mind at ease a little!

I swam in both pregnancies. DS has neither asthma nor eczema. DD had eczema until she was about 2 but seems to have grown out of it. As their dad has asthma I'd imagine there would be some possibility of them having it so looks like swimming was fine for me.

I would be very wary of swimming often and starting early in pregnancy.

I only went to swim twice in entire pregnancy due to fear of infection. I am hearing for first time about the other problems.

My friend got nasty bacterial infection after going to the pool and unfortunatelly miscarried due to that at 17weeks. I have heard also on other forums other posters sort of having similar experience and would avoid pools.

I just think it is not worthy the risk, eventhough it is recommened form of excercise there are other safer activities.

Argh these kind of articles make me so angry!! The pregnant woman is damned if she doesn't, damned if she doesn't. Right now, swimming is a godsend for me. It's my time out from a busy day, makes me feel more energetic, more positive about my changing body and means I sleep well at night. Everything I've read has suggested it's nothing but good for your baby.

True, there are risks in everything - I'm amazed not to have yet seen a daily mail type headline that suggests even just breathing is bad for your baby! Before I joined them, I had no idea pregnant women were subject to such conflicting (and misleading) advice. At best it's unhelpful, at worst it can add to the surging worry we already feel.

So I will continue to swim as it works for me, and I'd say to you that you should definitely go for it - look at the official websites like NHS, you'll see that the benefits are many. Sadly newspapers love to publish half baked research studies like this, but I'm learning to ignore them.

For example, this morning I felt tired, grumpy and blue. One swim later and I'm feeling so much better in myself, and less inclined to make a trip to the office junk food table (which I totally was planning to do this morning!)

I swam 3 times a week when pregnant with DS1 and at least once a week when pregnant with DS3, neither of them have any asthma or eczema problems, but then we don't have a history of either in the family either...

I didn't swim at all and my DD has it

Even the scientist says it is not proof of anything. And it's a hypothesis about airborne chemicals in lots of settings.

Just another way to get hysterical about what pregnant women do if you ask me.

I would be amazed if swimming in pregnancy could account for the increase in incidence of atopic disease - is there any evidence at all that pregnant women are swimming at higher rates than they used to now so many work full time? Looks like you would reduce your risk more by washing less often!

The thing about swimming is that the benefits outwiegh the tiny - not yet proven in any real way- risks. I hate that this is the headline for this article when cosmetics, processed food and cleaning products are mentioned as stringer associations and can be easily cut out but exercise really shouldn't be.

FWIW as you actually asked about personal experiences, I swam about 3 times a week for each pregnancy and both mine have no skin or breathing complaints, DC2 doesn't even get nappy rash.

I'd be inclined to read the actual paper on this as opposed to an article before making any decisions. The link in the article doesn't lead to the paper or even an abstract of a paper...

The article alone says multiple times it's a hypothesis and not a conclusion. In fact both scientists say it's not proven. And it says it's possibly a 'contributory factor' so not the sole one...

Yeah and I'd like to see how large the study size was etc etc. They could have claimed literally anything could possible contribute to the cause of asthma/eczema and the article could have remained the same - vague and non committal.

I was a life guard at a swimming pool in Accrington when I was pregnant with Ds1. I was swimming more or less daily before I found out I was pregnant and carried on right through until I finished work 8 days before he was born and was back in the pool when he was 6 days old. Absolutely no issues with anything. No asthma, no eczema or anything.
When I had DS2 I was working somewhere else but still swam twice a week ( and went to the gym) again, everything fine.

my dad has asthma, eczema and allergies and my mum had nothing of the sort.

the 3 of us: my older brother has chronic eczema and asthma. i have mild asthma. we both have allergies to cats and dust. my younger brother has psoriasis and no asthma or allergies.

conclusion: my dad's lousy genes got split three ways!

i can't see that swimming when pregnant could be responsible. in fact, my dad has been told that it is the same lousy rogue gene that is responsible for his slightly crooked hip, the allergies and skin condition, and premature greyness. (thanks dad...) so i'd have thought that it's much more to do with whether it runs in either family than anything you do whilst pregnant, within reason of course.

I did lots of swimming in and after pregnancies & none of 4 DC have eczema or asthma.

My dad has mild eczema and never goes swimming. My genetic half brother had childhood asthma.

I did swim with pregnant with DD2 & no asthma/eczema so far. No family history of either.

But is suggest, to be on the safe side to choose a pool where you find that that smell of chlorine is not over powering. At many leisure centres you can smell the chlorine from the reception - clearly this is too much chlorine. A private club I go to, you can barely smell any chlorine even at the poolside. I (think!) it's down to good quality chlorine used in small quantities which makes a difference. It also helps keep the damage to hair/skin under control as I swam twice a week!

I went swimming lots while pregnant and my 1 year old doesn't suffer from either. I'd have thought it's more likely to be genetic although I haven't read the article...

WAIT - has no one else noticed that cleaning products are probably far worse?

So I henceforth shall not be doing any more cleaning during pregnancy.

Oh doh - newspapers aren't going to publish that, are they. Far better to scare women out of something they would enjoy.

"We have not proved anything, we are not saying this is the cause, this is a hypothesis but we do know we are using far more chemicals than we did 50 years ago, whether it is in personal care products or processed food and we think this should be looked at an studied more.”

Dp is a research scientist and his view on this was "crap journalism. Sounds like a scientist with the begging bowl out" Charming!

No where near enough evidence to change behaviour with regard to swimming but I'll definitely be giving up cleaning just in case.

Nick your first paragraph quotes personal care products and ready meals - come on women, don't be vain and waste time / money on fripperies, and you must always cook from scratch. (Cleaning is fine though) a tangent but also 'light domestic work' is always quoted as fine after a c-section for eg - wtf is 'light domestic work'? Is it ever recommended to men?