I love peanut butter. But am I meant to avoid it?

[neuroticlady]

I could just eat a big buttery slab of peanut butter on toast. But I've heard you should avoid peanuts in pregnancy to avoid your child getting nut allergies. So I haven't touched them, or my beloved peanut butter. Is this right or have I made this up? Could I go and tuck in guilt-free...?

phdlife thanks ofr that, pretty much the most useful answer I would say.

I never gave up peanuts either in rpevious pg's 9wasnt recommended then) and even with lots fo allergies 9casein, gluten, eczma, strawberries) int the family there's no nut allergy at all, which is purely anecdotal of course.

Wow, no wonder it's so confusing. There's basically no definitive answer. Thanks phdlife.

No peanut allergies in the family on either side, but I will continue to avoid them as why take the chance, as a few others have said. And I have some nice nutty alternative ideas, thanks!

The thing all this is now making me wonder is whether I am inadvertently passing on any other allergy sources to bub; I have always suffered with IBS type symptoms but no one has ever been able to put their finger on what the problem might be (coeliac disease ruled out via blood test). I just have lots of irritating symptoms and I'm now really worried that whatever the irritant in my diet is (don't think it's wheat as I tried cutting it out and it made no difference. Same with dairy. Gluten maybe..?) I am going to pass it on to the baby and the poor thing is going to have terrible tummy pains (and allergies) to deal with. Has anyone any knowledge of this or experience with it? Maybe I'll start a new thread about allergies in general and how they're passed on - I'll see if I get any answers via this peanut butter thread first .

It's amazing how the knowledge generated here gets you thinking, isn't it?

NeuroticL - indeed it does get you thinking. I've been bugged all mornign by what I've read from the study in SW England which reported in 2003 - it found no link between eating peanuts in pg or while breastfeeding and allergies in children but it did find that in 84% of cases the child had been exposed in the first six months of life to skin creams containing peanut oil. But where is the advice to parents to avoid such things? If the science is shaky (as i keep saying, I'm no expert) I'd be happy to let it drop but, when we're bombarded wiht advice about what to/what not to eat, it seems strange that the one clear link hasn't made its way into advice to parents but the peanut-eating warning remains. Odd.

Neurotic- I ahve similar responses to foods, for me its mainly casein (in milk) and gluten that does it, although the gluten is to a much lower extent so ica n minimalise rather than negate it. oats tend to be wrose than wheat for me as well. Worth keeping a food diary, I think.

Also worth insisting on tets- my BIL had his similar symptoms diagnosed as IBS after tests, turned out a few years later the tests had been poorly performed, hew has ulcerative colitis and at 30 is facing an ileostomy in the next few months, unlikely to reversible. Apparently an earlier diagnosis would have meant he would have most likely have avoided this.

Kerrymum re: Cornettos, they're hazlenuts on top. I avoided them for ages before realising I could have them.

yeah it's an interesting problem isn't it.

my sister is coeliac; she rubbed her belly with almond oil while pg and now wonders whether that is somehow linked to her dd's nut allergy. But she avoided nuts during her 2nd pg and her ds still ended up with some anaphylactic reactions - once to an injection of antibiotic, once to a hairy caterpillar. Which is why I was stumped with my gp saying "avoid nuts".

But you want to know the weirdest thing? My sister says 80% of the kids in her children's support group were born by CS - a figure that seems too high to be coincidence, but no scientist has even begun to look into that aspect yet!