Eating peanuts during pregnancy appears to quadruple the risk that the baby will be allergic to nuts, according to a Montreal researcher.
Allergist Anne Desroches at the Ste. Justine Hospital reached this conclusion in an unpublished study, La Presse has reported.
The study also shows eating peanuts while breastfeeding doubles the risk a baby will develop a nut allergy, a potentially life-threatening condition that is becoming more common.
Desroches said little is currently known about allergy risks for fetuses and newborns. She says her findings are, “very significant.”
Some U.S. and British doctors have already been recommending for some time that mothers-to-be avoid eating nuts. The new study confirms this is a good idea.
Desroches’s study was conducted between 1998 and 2005, and involved 403 babies, half of whom were diagnosed with peanut allergies before they were 18 months old.
There are some old wives tales that you will hear when you become pregnant. Some may think this is one of them and researchers want us to know it isn’t. Let’s just hope that PB&J is not one of your cravings…
