Question: My oldest son has a very serious peanut allergy. I have two questions. I have heard that eating peanut butter while breastfeeding can cause a peanut allergy. If this is true, could I have caused my son‘s allergies while breastfeeding him? If so, should I avoid peanuts while breastfeeding this one that I’m expecting? Or should I avoid breastfeeding this new baby altogether?
One very commonly accepted theory of how young kids get allergies is that they were over exposed to the allergen very early in life. However, we don’t really know exactly why some kids are more prone to allergies than others. (Not every baby whose mother had peanut butter while breastfeeding, has a nut allergy, for example.) Nor do we know exactly how kids get allergies or whether or not there is a window during infancy when they are more prone towards getting them. In essence, there is not really a way to know whether or not you ‘caused’ your child’s allergies. Any number of external factors could’ve caused his allergies, including the foods you ate while you were pregnant. You will likely not find the cause in this life time so it is not worth thinking about.
Should You Still Breastfeed?
Yes you should. Research clearly shows that breastfed babies have less allergies and when they do have them they are less severe. Obviously, there are some babies that have severe allergies and were breastfed. But you have no way of knowing how much worse off your son would’ve been without having been breastfed. Breast milk substantially boosts the infant immune system. In fact, it boosts it so much that WHO says if there were a moderate increase in breastfeeding it would significantly decrease infant morbidity. No doubt your son needed that extra boost–especially if he was prone to peanut allergies.
So yes, you should still breastfeed the new baby you’re expecting. However. . .
Should I Avoid Allergens?
Yes you should. You should avoid peanut butter and/or other nuts and in fact, you should start avoiding them now while you’re pregnant. Nut protein can pass through the placenta as well as through the breast milk. Random women would not normally go around avoiding allergens throughout pregnancy and breastfeeding and indeed, there really is not a need to do so. In fact, I ate a handful of nuts every day while nursing the twins because they are an excellent source of protein and high in ‘good for you’ calories.
However, now that you know you have a family history of nut allergies, you should constantly be on the look out for potential problems with any of your other children as well. Besides that, I would imagine that you have to have a ‘nut free’ house anyway.
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