Eating Nuts In Pregnancy No Risk To Babies

A lot of my female patients, who are mothers-to-be are concerned about their diet during pregnancy and how it might affect their baby. A primary concern of theirs is whether they should refrain from eating nuts during their pregnancy.But last week, I saw online in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics, the results of a study that implied that pregnant women should not be concerned about passing nut allergies on to their unborn baby.The Boston Globe reports that the study, conducted in Boston's Children's Hospital "found that children born to women who ate peanuts, almonds, or other nuts on a nearly daily basis during pregnancy were 70% less likely to develop peanut or tree nut allergies compared to those born to women who rarely ate nuts."Says the authors of the study "our study supports the hypothesis that early allergen exposure increases the likelihood of tolerance and thereby lowers the risk of childhood food allergy."One of the authors, reported the New York Times, Dr. Michael C. Young, an allergist at Children's Hospital said the study could not conclusively say that there was "cause and effect" from the study but did say that "previously. women were concerned that eating nuts during pregnancy probably would lead to an allergic baby, but our data dispels that.The American study comes on the heels of another study, published in early December, by the Canadian Pediatric Society and the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology that issued a joint statement, saying that "there appears to be no benefit to delaying the introduction of potential allergens in the diet of young children. Not giving children these foods may even the increase the risk of developing an allergy."For more on peanut allergies click here