In Cecil’s recentColumn he said ‘if allergies run in your family and you get pregnant, you might want to shun peanuts to avoid giving a peanut allergy to your child’.
There is also increasing evidence that probiotics (beneficial bacteria) taken during pregnancy can reduce the incidence of allergies and eczema.
This Link has a nice summary of this.
I would think that another approach is to avoid like the plague (pun not intended) all of the antiseptic products:
I shun antibactirial soap, for instance, because the real function of it is to create resistant bacteria, and the passing of resistance genes from harmless strains to malevolent strains is known and documented well.
my source for this approach is the book The Coming Plague.
-David Barak
-Fully RFC 1925 Compliant-
Great link Learner, very interesting.
However, I don’t get the idea of shunning peanuts during pregnancy to avoid giving the allergy to your child. Wouldn’t you want to expose your child to the allergen to build up resistance? I’ve heard before that you can’t get an allergy to something you haven’t been exposed to, but that doesn’t make any sense to me. A common way to treat allergies is to give allergy shots, where the patient is given small doses of the allergen to build up immunity. I don’t see why this can’t apply to unborn children.
Jon, I thought the same thing. I ate peanut butter by the POUND as a child, and through my pregnancy. My kid eats it with no problem whatsoever. Peanut butter was always a staple in our household. I just don’t get it.
I used to believe that all of these reports of peanut allergies were the result of paranoid parents…
That was until this past March, when my two year old son reacted to a peanut butter cookie. His throat, mouth and lips swelled up, he gagged for breath and he broke out in hives from head to toe. If it wasn’t for the quick response of paramedics, I’m sure he would have died right there on the spot. And, this took all of about ten minutes to happen.
If you have never seen this happen to you or your kids, consider yourself lucky. It will scare the pants off you and make you a believer in the power of allergies.
It has nothing to do with GIVING the fetus an allergy but exposing the fetus to something s/he’s allergic to. I’ve read all the studies since I’m one of those that has a potentially fatal allergy to peanuts and nuts. From my own experience, those of my brothers (who all have it as well), those I’ve talked to who have it (well over a hundred by now), and the studies I’ve read that I considered at least halfway sensible, it is about genetics and exposure. You are either allergic to something or you’re not. You cannot make yourself allergic to nuts. You can make yourself not LIKE to eat nuts by overly gorging on them but that’s about it. Both of my parents loved and ate nuts and yet all their children (four sons) are allergic to them. I also know people who are also allergic to nuts and whose mothers were as well so they definitely didn’t get any as fetuses nor as young children. It’s in our genetic make-up. As for exposure, the more exposure you have to nuts, the more severe your reaction … if you’re allergic to them in the first place.
When I was young, the only thing I did when I accidentally ate a nut was throw up. Then when I was in the military and eighteen years old, I had an unusual reaction after eating at the mess hall. I didn’t throw up but felt sick and my salvia started to flow like crazy. Being 18 and fresh out of the nest, I called home and talked to my mom about what was happening to me. She figured it must have been the apple pie that I ate as the only thing that could have had nuts in it as some make it with pistachio nut flakes. As I was just coming off grave shift and feeling VERY tired at the moment, I was going to then just sleep it off, but my dear dear sweet mom was relentless in telling me to get myself to the emergency room. She even threatened to call my commanding officer to get me to do it. In the end, she got me to promise her I would go right then to the emergency room and knew I wouldn’t break such a promise once made … though it took her a while to get me to make it. She also wanted me to get someone to walk with me there, but I thought that was way too unmanly and since she didn’t extract a promise from me on that point, I didn’t. So I walked to clinic that was a half mile away (I was stationed at the huge Charleston Air Force Base) with a big wad of tissue paper to try and soak up the salvia that was now drooling out of my mouth as I was then having problems swallowing it. It just so happen that Sick Call was being done at this time. Now if you haven’t been in the military, Sick Call is when you show up claiming you’re too sick to work. Note the word “claiming”. Everyone assumes you just want to get out of work and are thus faking it. The medical staff that processes you treats you as a slacker and thus generally despises you as wasting their time. But I was there and didn’t realize what was really going on inside me so I simply got in line for Sick Call. I waited as the line moved forward slowly. By the time I got to the front of the line and the male orderly snarled “What’s your problem?”, I couldn’t speak anymore. He repeated his question and acted as if he was waiting to see a really bad acting job about to be performed. Then his whole expression changed as he saw me drool out salvia into the wad of tissue paper as I was trying to answer him. He stood up with a start and shouted as if I was deaf: “Can you talk?!” I shook my head the negative.
Then the “fun” started.
In a blur, the orderly rushed me to the emergency room side of the clinic as the orderly was yelling for help. Nurses came running out of nowhere as did a doctor. The four of them practically carried me into the operating room. Then a very rapid game of Twenty Questions was played after the doctor quickly looked down my throat. I being only able to answer “yes” or “no” with head movements. I tried to write “nut allergy” but my hand was too weak by this time to even firmly hold onto a pencil. Oxygen loss they later said, but I think I was just too freaked out by their reactions. Anyway, when the doctor asked the $64,000 question: “Are you allergic to nuts?” and I nodded the affirmative, I was shot up with two big shots of epinephrine. I then sat there with two very attractive female nurses holding my wrists constantly monitoring my pulse. The US military never does anything by half-measure. laugh However, I think the mega-dose of epinephrine was totally unnecessary. All they had to do to get my heartrate through the roof was what they did next. They wheeled in a tray that had tracheotomy surgery tools and told me that if the epinephrine failed, what they were going to have to do and that this was my last hope. And if that wasn’t enough, they also wheeled in the “crash cart” (cardiac arrest jumper cables … a.ka. defibrillator) in case they needed to jump start my heart if the epinephrine fried it. Oh, it was at this time that I finally understood the severity of what was happening to me. 
I was the first brother to have such a severe reaction but now all of my brothers do. In fact, my two oldest brothers (I’m third in line) have to have bee sting kits all around their houses, where they go to work, at all their friends’ homes, and in all the purses of their wives. They cannot carry the kits in one of their pockets or in car glove compartments as heat damages the epinephrine. Additionally, their wives and secretaries have had to be trained how to properly administer the injections in case they find my brothers already passed out due to oxygen loss. chuckle A joke of my older brothers is that their main fear is that they’ll simply be taking a nap at their desk and get woken up by their secretary stabbing them with the injection needle. 
Just recently after another visit to the emergency room (I don’t yet need bee sting kits and can get by still with Benadryl) and a lecture from the emergency room doctor, I no longer go out to eat. I prepare all my food at home. Since doing this, my close calls have been VERY few and only from food manufacturers that don’t properly list their ingredients or how their food has been prepared. Naturally, I read the ingredients on EVERYTHING I buy, but some manufacturers just don’t care I guess. They don’t realize that even the smallest amount of nuts or making stuff on the same machinery that had once processed something with nuts can be potentially fatal to people like me.
Needless to say, I am very glad that the food industry and medical profession are now making a big issue out of nut allergies. I think it is NOT over-reaction, but at last a sensible reaction that’s LONG overdue. Sorry, but I don’t really care to anywhere the same degree if someone smokes next to me as opposed to eat a nut next to me. I now get sick off of the nuts that is carried on the vapors coming out of that person’s mouth. I also get sick if an open container of nuts is around me. All those “natural” food stores are off-limits to me since they love to have open barrels of nuts in them for customers to scoop out bag-loads. Recently, I heard that McDonald’s at least no longer sprinkles nuts on their ice cream sundaes but hands out nuts in plastic packets to customers to do so themselves. While I applaud this step, it is still too little for me to eat at their restaurant chain. Although the food staff handles nuts less, there’s still nut traces all over those nut packets which then gets on the food staff’s hands and, besides, the customers then simply open up those packages out in the dining area. However, when McD gets rids of all nuts from their restaurant, they will get in return a very loyal and regular customer. 
Oh, and that last emergency room doctor pulled no punches when lecturing me. He told me that I can smoke all I want, eat all the fatty foods that I want, get the darkest suntan, never exercise, live in an X-Ray room, and drink so much booze it floats my liver. Why can I do all that? Because that’s not how I’m going to die. I’m going to die one day because of a nut reaction. A reaction that will be so severe and fast for the bee sting kits to be able to counter it nor will I be able to be rushed to the hospital in time. That, he said, is how I will die. The only question is when. On the bright side, he said I can have a great deal of control over how long I can hold off that date with the Grim Reaper. The fewer exposures to nuts I have, the longer I’ll live. Thus why I don’t go out and eat at restaurants anymore. 
There’s also recent evidence that peanut oil in rash ointments are a big risk factor - way bigger than eating peanuts in pregnancy or while breastfeeding.
If the baby has a rash that is crusted and/or bleeding, and they are treated with an ointment that has peanut oil, their risk for peanut allergy goes up dramatically.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/450513 (have to be registered to view, I think)
"Peanut allergy in children may arise from sensitization to low doses of peanut protein through the application of peanut oil to inflamed skin and possibly also consumption of soy milk or soy formula, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine. "
"Intake of soy milk or soy formula was associated with a 2.6-fold increase in risk of peanut allergy (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3 - 5.2). Rash over joints and skin creases was also linked to a 2.6-fold increased risk (95% CI, 1.4 - 5.0), and an oozing, crusted rash was linked to a 5.2-fold increased risk (95% CI, 2.7 - 10.2). A significant independent relationship between use of skin preparations containing peanut oil and allergy was also found (odds ratio, 6.8; 95% CI, 1.4 - 32.9).
However, Dr. Lack and colleagues found no evidence of prenatal sensitization from the maternal diet. Furthermore, peanut-specific IgE was not detectable in the cord blood."
N Engl J Med. Posted online March 10, 2003
A very very very badly oversimplied explanation about allergies and allergy shots…
Allergies are caused by a confused immune system. Sometimes, doctors don’t yet fully understand why, a person’s immune system decides that some harmless item in that person’s environment is in fact a parasite. It produces antibodies specific to that allergen, and the next time the person comes into contact with that allergen, the symptoms start. That’s why you can’t get an allergic reaction the first time you come in contact with something: your immune system needs to have “recognized” the allergen and made antibodies out against it.
For reasons that are even less well understood, sometimes, if a person comes in contact with very tiny amounts of the allergen over a long period of time, the immune system can be convinced that the allergen isn’t a parasite after all, it’s a bacteria. (Medicine’s equivalent of a Jedi Mind Trick, I guess.) That’s what allergy shots are all about. If they work, the patient’s immune system doesn’t really stop reacting - it just reacts in a way that makes the patient feel less miserable. Unfortunately, in addition to being expensive, time consuming, and painful, allergy shots are unpredictable. Worst case, the doctor ends up calling an ambulance because all these tiny exposures have unleashed a life-threatening reaction. It’s more likely though that they just don’t work, and after all that time and money and all those jabs, the patient still is just about as allergic as before. Even when they do work, they don’t eliminate the allergy, really. They can however make the allergy much easier to live with.
We have three hay fever sufferers in our family, one of whom maxed out the test for birch pollen allergy. However, all three can keep it under control with medicines and common sense during their respective allergy seasons, so shots haven’t even been considered. They’re about the only permanent treatment for allergy, but they’re not magic.
As for avoiding allergens when pregnant - there’s some evidence that certain allergens are more likely to provoke a reaction if encountered early on. If food allergies run in the family, you might help your child avoid a peanut allergy by keeping him away from peanuts until he’s three or four. But there’s no guarantees. And other allergies can turn up at any age - I had my first bout of hay fever in my mid-twenties.
Yup, when I was growing up, I went once a week for over a year for allergy shots. God, how I hated those. My father would pull me out of school early so we could drive to the far-away clinic for them. Normally, you’d think I’d be happy to get out of school early, but not on those days since I knew of the pain that awaited me. My dad would always treat me to ice cream, cakes, etc. there and back, but take a guess whether or not I’d like to get those and the pain or just not the pain. In the end, my allergies weren’t lessened in the slightest. In fact, years later an allergy doctor said they might have even made them worse as the more exposures, the more severe my reactions. He recommended that my brothers and I be VERY careful about which allergy treatment we give our kids and to always get a good second opinion before trying something. Oh well. My parents were trying to do the best for me and I appreciate it now. I didn’t then, but I was a kid then and no kid likes pain.
As for the exposure vs. genetics, I don’t think we’re in conflict. The genes of my brothers and I all mistake nuts as a parasite.
Another allergic checking in.
The current hype, in some ways, works more against me than for me. I don’t need to be kept in an allergen-free bubble, I just need to NOT eat certain foods.
(Oh, and thanks for the “food allergies are rare” line - SOOOO helpful. Guess I just got “lucky”.)
I get one of several reactions:[ul]
[li]You only THINK you have food allergies, you’re clearly delusional, here, let me convince of this by secretly putting something you are allergic to in this meal to PROVE you’re not allergic… Oh, my, why are you turning funny colors and swelling up like that?[/li][li]OMIGOD!!! You’re ALLERGIC! Let me get you a spacesuit so you don’t have to breathe the air in the pizza parlor and gosh we’ll sit by a window and by the way, what CAN you eat? Anything? Or do you live on pills and raw protein?[/li][li]Well! Because YOU can’t eat X, Y, or Z and I can’t be bothered with understanding I am NEVER going to invite you to my house, or to lunch with me, and I’m going to make lots and lots of noises at your birthday party at work, including announcing in a loud voice that everyone has be be CAREFUL not to let you near the peanut butter cookies and maybe we’ll just have to STOP HAVING BIRTHDAY PARTIES at work because it’s sooooo hard to accomodate you and we don’t want you to feel left out so we’ll have to leave EVERYONE out and it’s ALL YOUR FAULT we can’t have parties anymore because you are so unreasonable about things[/li][li]Oh? You’re allergic to X? Then I guess you can’t have A, B, C or D, either. (Actually, yes I can - just because many food allergy people are allergic to fish doesn’t mean I am allergic to fish - not at all)[/li][li]Oh? You can’t have X, Y, or Z? How about I run the menu for lunch by you, you tell me if there might be any problems, and we’ll go from there. And if everything is OK you can eat without worrying about those nasty allergy things.[/li][/ul] Really, I don’t need to be in a bubble (or space suit). There’s lots I can eat. I’m not offended if YOU eat something that I’m not supposed to eat - why should my problem become your problem? And please don’t confuse my desire to simply not consume food that would cause problems for me with the over-the-top behavior of certain obnoxious parents - I have no desire to restrict YOUR dietary options.
I think some of the “no peanut-zone” stuff is an over-reaction by overprotective parents who don’t really understand allergies.
Food labeling is DEFINITELY my biggest problem. I need to know what is and isn’t in my food, it’s that simple. And it’s really aggravating to find something I’m allergic to in so many different products that don’t really need that item. “Health food”, in particular, is a problem - packing various forms of extra protein into what is, essentially, a candy bar or pill. Where do they get that extra protein? Peanuts are a common source… as is milk, which, while not a problem for me IS a problem for many. It’s ironic, but frequently a cheesburger is healthier for me than so-called “health food” or common vegetarian meals because the “healthy” food contains items I’m allergic to.
THEN we have the snack foods that all seem to use the same four or five additives/ingredients over and over… forget anything “peanut flavored” for me. Anything with tomatoes INCLUDING ketchup or salsa or any tomato-based sauce… including BBQ sauce…
I cook a lot of stuff from scratch, salad bars are my friend, and I go for simple food that hasn’t been marinated or sauced unless I’m very certain it’s OK. I frequently skip the meals on commercial airlines (when offered at all anymore) as a safety precaution. Being a well-fed American I can last a few hours without food. It sure as hell beats having a medical emergency at 30,000 feet.
Yeah, I hear ya. I do get sick of people over-reacting. A friend of mine is a paraplegic and his comment was “Now you know how I feel.”
When I first gave up eating at restaurants, it did feel odd going into a restaurant knowing I wasn’t going to eat there. I’d go in to be with friends as they eat there. However, I know my friends just don’t ask me to accompany them for such things as much anymore. Understandable, but being an extrovert, I wish it wasn’t. It’ probably because it’s a bit odd for them as well. And some waitresses majorly over-react or think it is weird that I’m even there. By the way, you sure save a lot of money by not eating out.
Then there’s dating. Man, I wait as long as I can before I bring up my food allergies. A bit hard since going out to a restaurant is a common dating activity. I instead propose cooking them a dinner at my place for the first date or two which usually scores big points. However, if they give me the raised eyebrow of “You just trying to get me into your bedroom?”, I do then explain why. I just hate getting pity from a date and/or activating their mothering instinct (which usually pours cold water on any passion). “Look. I’m not starving. I’m 245 pounds. I’m not fat, but that’s simply because I’m careful with what I eat, eat at home, and work out.”
As for the “no-peanut-zone”, I’d, however, go for that as my allergy is now to a level where lack of such would cause me problems.
As for not eating airline food, I don’t fly on airlines that serve those nut packets to fliers. I think United and American don’t. My travel agent always makes sure I fly on no-nut airlines. And, yes, I don’t eat airline food either. However, I just bring along something to eat in my carry-on bag if it will be a long flight. Problem solved.
Twin Tattoo, I feel your pain-my dad is an allergist and I have worked in his office off and on. I have a few allergies myself-mild ones to chocolate and corn, so I know about food labels. I also have had 3 friends with severe food allergies like the ones you describe, and I have watched 2 of them wind up in the hospital due to unsuspected food cross-contamination. Watch yourself, man.
More that if it does happen to you or your kids, consider yourself unlucky. Being one of 299 out of 300 can hardly be considered lucky
More that if it does happen to you or your kids, consider yourself unlucky. Being one of 299 out of 300 can hardly be considered lucky
[
my source for this approach is the book The Coming Plague.
-]
Actually there is already an excellent (though long, approx 800 + pages) book by the same name by a CDC epidemiologist on basically the same subject. It discusses the origins of microbiology, antibiotics and vaccines. It is a very good read. I highly recommend it.
Here is a link to the book on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140250913/002-8060108-1614468?vi=glance
I have one bizarre allergy (bananas) and one pretty normal one (latex). Recently, though, I found that the two were connected. Apparently it is common for folks who are allergic to bananas to also be allergic to mangos, kiwis and latex.
The first three are no big deal (I don’t really like banana nut bread enough to risk intubation), but the last really stinks. I am a nurse and am in constant contact with latex. Plus, it really limits our birth control options. We recently had a baby and were shocked to discover that condoms are now a complete no no. Talk about “fire in the hole!” Ditto for diaphragms. Don’t know what we will do. Have more kids I guess. I can’t take the pill right now as I am breastfeeding.
it’s almost always possible to find a product (or recipe etc) that is ok for someone’s range of allergies though might take some research.
re condoms, google came up trumps first time - checkout durex.com condom selector . this will show you non-latex condoms options.
mama2nate&anna, I’m surprised to hear that your place of employment hasn’t switched to non-latex stuff. Very few hospitals and clinics are still using latex gloves/dams/tubing/etc. Many have actually gone so far as to ban latex balloons brought in as presents for sick patients because of latex allergies – they’ve outright banned latex on the premises. You should ask your employer to consider joining the cutting edge of the medical profession by switching to non-latex products.
Condoms are also available in non-latex forms, so you don’t have to switch to the pill. There are “all natural” ones (actually made from sheepskin), and there are non-latex synthetics as well, just as there are for gloves. However, if you prefer the pill, there is a version that is safe while breastfeeding. I don’t recall the brand name; I know it’s not the hugely-popular Ortho-Tricyclen, though.
The latex allergy and the nickel allergy both scare the heck out of me as far as medicine goes. I’m not allergic to either, but my mother is highly sensitive to nickel. She has to wear glasses made from titanium because she can’t tolerate the steel; even with plastic pads separating the steel from her skin, enough nickel eventually wears through that it breaks her out in a rash. Both nickel and latex have been commonly used in medical appliances, including implants, and that’s where it gets really scary from an allergy standpoint. That’s why so many hospitals and surgeons are completely switching over to non-latex and non-nickel products, particularily for implants. You’d really hate that to be the exposure that the patient finally reacts to, if they’ve got a latent allergy.
Don’t use the natural condoms if your worry is STD’s. Those bugs look at those condoms the way a mouse looks at an open door-no barrier at all.
Let’s see… she states she’s in a marriage, presumably monogamous, and her main concern is to avoid pregnancy.
Why are you bringing up STD’s?
It pretty much implies that you think her husband is cheating on her.