How seriously do you take the advice on avoiding peanuts?

[Moorhen]

I'm 31+5, and got really panicked at 9 weeks when found out that advice was to avoid peanuts if you or DP had hayfever, eczema or asthma (I'm not allergic to anything but DH has terrible hayfever) as "might" trigger peanut allergy in baby.

Panic even worse because had innocently eaten a few Hersheys peanut butter cups in week six (present for the office from colleague's holiday... mmmm...).

Reading up on it, I find there seems to be no actual scientific proof whatsoever. And although I still am avoiding any food with peanuts, including all Thai food, I'm not scanning packages for those "caution - may contain traces of nuts" labels because practically everything does!

Is this enough? Too much? I hate all the scare-mongering but I'm not strong enough to resist...

In my first pregnancy I didn't stop as neither myself nor dh have asthma or excema or allergies. In fact I used to have peanut butter sarnies

DD was born with excema. I have no idea what could have caused it but i ain't taking any chances at all with #2 and am not eating peanuts just incase

I haven't had peanut butter since mid-2004 because of having been permanently pg and/or bf since then. But I don't scan labels either.

I'm not entirely certain of the evidence for/against this theory myself - it's not something I've looked particularly into, unlike toxoplasmosis and listeria - I just follow it unthinkingly

Prob. not very sensible, but I've had a HUGE craving for peanuts in each of my pregnancies and this time round I've had a fair amount of peanut butter. the research does seem divided as to whether or not eating peanuts encourages an allergy or not. this is my 4th in 6 yrs. so i just couldn't resist peanuts any longer...!

My SIL, who's from the US, was stunned when I refused peanut butter when I was pregnant. She says it's practically compulsory in the US, both for pregnant women and as a weaning food. My BIL (her husband) is terrifically allergic to everything, but their kids don't have any allergies so far.

However, for some reason peanut allergies are much more common in the UK - nobody seems to know why.

I wasn't aware people were advised to avoid them and I'm pg with my third!

I haven't avoided them at all. I love nuts and bombay mixes which contain peanuts.
I have peanut butter on toast occasionally.

Dh suffers from hayfever and we don't have a history of eczema or asthma.

Ds is fine and has no allergies.

I haven't eaten any peanuts for 2 years + now (preg and and then bf) and I kinda feel like maybe I'm being too anal but then also scared that if I do eat them and dd ends up with an allergy then i will feel guilty forever... I think it depends on family history of allergies - I'm allergic to walnuts and pine nuts so I'm being cautious. That said, I still eat (and ate while preg) other nuts. No one ever said to avoid cashews so I'm eating them instead. Maybe I'm being naive...

All that said, I don't pay attention to the "traces of nuts" stuff as they write that on everything. Far as I can tell, just means that the food was produced/packaged within a 5km radius of a peanut.

Hi- agree with nezi- if you avoid something you are more likely to have a reaction to it- as well as if you eat LOADS of it in one go.

What about Thailand- every single item of food contains peanuts...

I did avoid them with first PG as was very cautious- then DS got eczema at 6 wks- despite being totally breastfed. With DD i was less cautious -she has no allergies- and now (17wks PG) i found myself eating a bag of honeyroasted peanuts and cashews (yum)...!

Listeria is the really major food issue that PG women should be aware of, because it affects the baby.

Neutronstar - I was very surprised to hear you say that peanut allergies are less common in the US. Did you get that info from your SIL or did you read a study?
I am in Canada and we found out last Sept that my DD2 age 4 is allergic to peanuts. She had an anaphalactic reaction and so now has to carry an epipen at ALL times and avoid anything that even "may contain traces of" peanuts.

Here in Canda I have found peanut allergies MUCH more common than in UK - in terms of my own aquaintances. My DDs elementary school has 11 children who carry Epipens.

From what I have read and heard, peanut allergies as as common in the US as they are here in Canada. And it's true here that people eat Peanut butter as a staple and give it to very young children.

BTW I avoided all nuts whilst pregnant and BF, and would again -wouldn't take the risk.

Have to say, no idea of the science behind it, but have been avoiding as I've suffered from eczema on and off since I was a child (and it has thoughtfully gone somewhat ballistic in the past few weeks and I cannot get rid of it ). Thought better to avoid it if possible. Having said that, I haven't avoided things with "traces of nuts" labels, as agree, that could mean just produced near a peanut -nor avoided other nuts as my understanding was it's just peanuts. Thus it was that I tucked into a bowl of Crunchy Nut bran flakes the other mornnig before checking what type of nuts they are.....ooops. So if mine ends up with an allergy, I'll be blaming myself. Sigh.

But, to cut short the rambling, it's one of the few I have tried to follow fairly strictly, but that's purely because I've got bad eczema - and probably because I haven't actually found it too difficult to give up peanuts .

Hi, IMO it's enough to avoid food that acutally contains peanuts. Unless you actually have a peanut allergy, avoiding "may contain traces of.." is not necessary.
Not to mention it's a bloody nightmare

hellish - my comment was a pretty garbled version of what I remembered from reading this thread.

I don't take it seriously at all. Moderation is the key, in my opinion, as with most things. DH has hayfever and asthma but I don't believe that if I eat peanuts during pregnancy that it will have any adverse affect on my unborn baby. Like you said, I have never seen concrete scientific proof regarding this and every study done on this topic has been inconclusive. In the USA there is virtually no warnings about eating peanuts in pregnancy, in fact it is often mentioned as a nutritious and sound food to include in your diet, e.g. a wholemeal bagel and peanut butter for lunch. I can understand someone not wanting to eat peanuts in pregnancy, it's understandable to be nervous when there are recommendations against eating it depending on where you look or who you speak to. I think you need to do whatever is comfortable for you but there are clearly no direct links of an adverse affect on the baby proven like there is with smoking during pregnancy or the use of certain medication, drugs and alcohol. I would certainly not panic though, Moorhen, if you've previously eaten lots of peanut butter cups, I'm sure all will be well!

I'd say if it's your DH who has allergies and not you, it probably isn't an issue. When PG and breastfeeding, I avoid peanuts (I have hay fever, my brother had childhood asthma, etc.), but in the 6 weeks before I knew I was PG with DD, I gorged on salted peanuts (on honeymoon in Brussels, so it was beer and peanuts!) - and she's not developed asthma. She gets a mild touch of eczema when I get my hay fever. As a previous poster said, the research isn't conclusive - Personally, I'm more concerned about nappy creams containing peanut oil ("arachis") as I reckon putting peanut oil straight into the baby's nappy rash is more risky. But then again if we're avoiding alcohol, brie, etc. it's easy to avoid nuts too!

Hi all, my ds3(8) has a severe allergy to peanuts & went in to anaphylactic shock 2 years ago after coming in to contact with peanut dust through cross contamination. He nearly died. I can not remember eating peanuts through my pregnancy with him (although i may have) but he did have terriable eczema as a young baby up until he was about 12 months, & whether i had been eating peanuts & it was caused by contact through his eczema idont know but i would advise anyone to sta clear from peanuts whetherthere is a history of allergies of any kind or not, but especially if there is a history of allergies in your family. Lemmiwinks: moderation is not the key! Sorry but the more you are exposed to sometihng such as peanuts or nuts, the more a allergy becomes more serious.

Julia76, that's not quite the same thing I was talking about - clearly I didn't mean in moderation even if you have a peanut allergy! It's obvious that if you have any sort of peanut allergy in the family it's necessary to avoid it, whether you are pregnant or not, but this is not the context in which not eating peanuts in pregnancy falls into. What I meant was that if there's no reason to not eat peanuts, i.e. you or your children or partner do not have a peanut allergy, there is no reason not to eat peanuts in pregnancy but as with anything it should still be in moderation. I was simply saying that b/c it's still wise to not make peanuts a staple of your diet obviously. I'm sorry about your DS's allergy but the fact is that there's simply no clear evidence that the reason he developed his allergy was a result of peanuts eaten by you in pregnancy. The recommendation in the UK is that women whose partner's have a history of hayfever, eczema and asthma should avoid peanuts - it doesn't even mention peanut allergy because that's a given that you should not eat peanuts if you fall under that catergory. In other countries there is no recommendation against eating peanuts in pregnancy simply because the studies done into this area don't have any conclusive evidence to suggest a link. Once again, this is not talking about people who anyway have peanut allergies in their family.

I have been told by a midwife / genetic consellor that there's actually nothing in it at all.

I'd personally say that if you have a family history of nut allergies then best to avoid to be on the safe side.

I have avoided peanuts with all 4 pregnancies through sheer fear. I do tick all of the boxes re allergies - not that I avoid anything I shouldn't eat - otherwise I would eat a grain of rice a day! BUT you never know so I didn't with the first and I haven't with teh subsequent ones. I did go a little mad and cut out all nuts of all varieties in every single form - i think I was just being paranoid.

I think with a lot of the 'don'ts' during pregnancy it is a bit much. Friends from other European countries think that we are absolutely bonkers with the way we carry on!

soon all pregnant women will have to eat is porridge or something
having said that, I didn't eat peanuts but did eat a lot of brazil nuts this time round. I believe in listening to your body and if it craves something or doesnt want other stuff, then go with it. mine likes cake - fair nuf

Eat peanuts. The current thinking is that the peanut allergy may have something to do with avoiding peanuts when pregnant and in early childhood.

Or I should say, eat what you feel like eating. Your own, lovely pregnant body will tell you what it wants

I took it very seriously because I have a nut allergy (brazil nuts). Without such a close connection to nut allergy I would not have taken it so seriously (I even avoided "may contain traces of nuts).

I have to admit I had a killer peanut cravings when I was pregnant with DS so HAD to eat them - but there are no allergies in my family.

Am not eating so many in this pregnancy but not avoiding them as such. I'm not sure it is necessary to avoid them completely....