Monday, November 08, 2010
Hold the Nuts for Moms-to-Be: Eating Peanuts while Pregnant May Raise Allergy Risk
From Johns Hopkins Medicine
Babies born to mothers who eat peanuts during pregnancy appear more prone to peanut allergy, according to research conducted by scientists at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and elsewhere and published online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The research team was led by Scott Sicherer, M.D., of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
Infants whose mothers reported eating peanuts at least twice a week during pregnancy were nearly three times more likely than other infants to have levels of peanut antibodies high enough to suggest a lurking peanut allergy. Of the 503 infants, 3 to 15 months of age, in the study, 28 percent had such blood levels. All infants in the study already had either confirmed or suspected diagnoses of milk or egg allergy.
The investigators emphasize that their work is far from showing a direct cause and effect between a mother’s peanut consumption and her baby’s allergy. Affected babies were already more likely to be immunologically susceptible to peanut allergies. The findings do suggest, however, that peanut eating may be a “priming” mechanism.
Read the full article here.
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