A new study shows that there may be a link to peanut ingestion in pregnant mothers and peanut allergy in their children.
Dr. Scott Sicherer of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute recently released the results of this study.
The results showed that women who ingested large amounts of peanut products during pregnancy gave birth to babies who tested high positive on peanut allergy tests.
Ten years ago many doctors warned pregnant and nursing women in regards to consuming peanut products and told mothers to wait to introduce peanut protein into their child’s diet until three years of age.
Peanut allergies have since increased dramatically over those ten years, from 1 in 250 to 1 in 70 in 2008. This caused a retraction from the medical community regarding whether or not peanuts should be consumed during pregnancy and whether parents need to wait to introduce peanut protein into their child’s diet.
Currently the jury is still out. Dr. Sicherer stated that the babies in the study need to be followed over the next few years to see how many actually develop a true peanut allergy.
In the meantime, he suggests that those who are concerned discuss the issue with their own doctor.