Question:
I did a little quick Internet research on pine nuts because we were
considering giving our 12-month-old organic chicken sausage which
includes them (wouldn't give him anything with little hard bits, but I
don't know that we could avoid all trace of pine nut.) How did I miss in just about 3 1/2 years of breastfeeding with one
four-month break that avoidance of nuts was a universal recommendation
for breastfeeding mothers? I know health-conscious extended-nursing
mothers, have truly pro-breastfeeding pediatricians, and never heard a
word about myself and my nursing peers being expected to avoid nuts. I
didn't even know most nursing mothers were avoiding peanuts, though of
course I was aware of heightened peanut allergy consciousness out
there. I had read a British recommendation that pregnant mothers avoid
those (we're American,) but that's all I'd heard, except for those with
known family allergy issues.
So, is everyone out there really doing this, avoiding nuts throughout
nursing? Pregnancy too? Since I'm hoping for a large family, and so far
nursed my first child for 25 months until 20+ weeks of my second
pregnancy, I guess I should be glad they weren't much of a staple in my
diet. (I really don't like that natural pb, and know Peter Pan isn't
very good for me...) Have never heard of or witnessed any known nut
reactions in the immediate or extended family. My 3-year-old ate almond
butter nearly every day from around a year and now eats peanut butter
nearly every day.
Other question: if you're avoiding nuts, do you ask at restaurants
about the ingredients, and avoid everything with "made in a plant that
also processes peanuts and tree nuts" labeling? Or just the obvious nut
stuff?
Answer:
Um, no. I'm not avoiding anything because I didn't hear anything about
avoiding nuts while pregnant or breastfeeding until I had been nursing my
baby for a couple of months. Neither DH nor I have family histories of nut
allergies. I confess that peanut butter was something I absolutely craved
while pregnant and indulged in with abandon. I also craved trail mix. So
far, baby Noah is fine. i'd only avoid due to family history. btw, it's not a family history of just
nut allergy, but a fam history of any allergy. it is the allergic tendency
that is passed on, not the specific allergy. for us, i'm avoiding all nuts, nut traces etc this pregnancy & for bf. but
that is because DS already has serious (life-threatening) multiple food
allergies (including nuts, eggs, legumes, soy, corn, fish, pumpkin, most
fruit, and other stuff). so the chances of his sibling having allergies is
much higher so i avoid everything. i'm still breastfeeding DS so i have to
avoid all his allergens & their traces & derivatives anyway!
when pregnant & bf with DS, i avoided all nuts but not traces. DH's family
has a strong family history of both food & environmental allergies. but DS
has allergies to most nuts, incl peanuts, so it's the traces that sensitised
him (most likely from chocolate & ice cream the allergist said).
so, unless you have a family history on either side, there doesn't seem to
be much reason to avoid stuff for allergy reasons.
btw, in answer to your question about eating out. DS & i can't! we bring our
own food if we go out with other people. DS has too many allergies. Well, you can count me in as a nut eating mother. I'm vegetarian, and nuts
and seeds have always featured pretty strongly in my diet. I ate peanut
butter while pregnant, and I eat it now. I think you take your family
history into account, and decide what the important issues are and leave the
rest.
Here's a common list of allergens:
-Nuts
-Wheat
-Dairy
-Eggs
-Sesame
-Berries
-Tomatoes
-Peas... ...I could go on, but I won't. I've always been very careful with DD's diet,
and I've delayed certain foods, such as wheat, dairy and eggs, and I haven't
given her peanuts yet. But if I had to eliminate every possible allergen
from my diet for the first year of her life just in case, I'd go crazy or
suffer malnutrition or both. Of course, if she was exhibiting signs of
allergy, I wouldn't hesitate to do an elimination diet to find the cause.
Except she isn't, and it seems a little over-cautious to me. I can't imagine
that mothers throughout history have purposefully avoided a long list of
foods staple to the diet of their culture for the entire duration of
breastfeeding.
One thing that stumps me, that someone may be able to answer:
An allergic response can only be exhibited on the second exposure to a
substance, right? Yet some children show an allergic response on their first
taste of a food, leading to the conclusion that allergens must be passed
across the placenta during pregnancy, and again through breastmilk. Correct
me if I'm wrong - because I honestly don't know the answer to this - but I
haven't heard of cases of exclusively breastfed children stopping breathing
due to a severe allergic reaction to peanuts (or anything else). Chances
are, that if the mother ate peanuts during pregnancy or breastfeeding,
there's a high chance she ate them during both. So in theory, some
potentially allergic children could have been repeatedly exposed to the
allergen before they even have their first solids. Yet breastfed babies are
statistically less likely to die from SIDS - which is unexplained, so could
be linked with allergies etc.
Have there been any in-depth studies involving peanut-allergic children, to
look at their mother's history of peanut consumption during pregnancy and/or
breastfeeding, and an examination of the child's medical history & first
allergic response, etc? I'm genuinely interested because IMO it's one of
those blanket and inconvenient recommendations that benefits a small
proportion of the population at the expense of the majority - who may read
up on all the "can't's" and decide that they'd rather formula feed after all
(which is the worst choice for the vast majority of babies, but _especially_
allergic babies).
