On Wed, 23 Sep 1998 10:23:54 -0500 Theresa Ray <[log in to unmask]>
writes:

>10) If you know of women who followed a dairy free diet while pregnant
>in the interest of minimizing the child's sensitivity to dairy, when
>did she start on the diet? As soon as she knew she was pregnant?
>Before getting pregnant? Only during later trimesters?

I just heard an allergist speak last night to a Mother's Group and this
subject came up.  According to several studies (in Europe and Kaiser,
SD), restricted pregnancy diet made no difference except to produce lower
birth weight babies because of nutritional deficiencies in the mother.
Also, regarding maternal diet when nursing, this only helped with the
first 5 years to lower the eczema and food allergy/intolerance rates.  At
around 5 years of age, all the children they had tracked (up to aget 10)
had the same incidence of food allergies/intolerance no matter what
supplements they had or other factors such as time of introduction of
solids.

The recommendations I've been given for restrictions during nursing are
dairy, eggs, peanuts, and shellfish with egg being the worst since it
passes the most easily into the breast milk.

It was interesting that most reactions are intolerances and not true
allergies (i.e. don't show up on a skin test).  He only categorized true
food allergies as those creating anaphalaxis.  I was very glad to hear
that intolerances rarely turn into true allergies and are most likely to
become less severe by age 5 since that is what we apparently deal with.

Kathy P.


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