Peanut butter?

[Cherished]

Hi everyone, I know this sounds like such a weird question but do you eat peanut butter? In one of my pregnancy books it suggests to avoid peanuts and peanut butter during pregnancy especially if there is any family history to allergies or intolerance to nuts......

What are your thoughts?

[Cupcake]

I've been eating it?

[sloane]

yeah, i didn't read anything about it until i was about 35 weeks PG & by then i'd been eating peanut butter on toast at least two or three times a week my entire PG!

not sure if that's recommended, but everything worked out okay here.

[Tanya]

I am another who eats it... peanuts are just too good

[Cherished]

I've been eating it too even though I know about it!!!!!! I've really wanted it and it's not something that I 'usually' have on my toast so I figured that if I was kinda craving it then it must be ok for the baby iykwim BUT I wanted to post this thread about it just incase there were stories out there that I really should listen to and therefore stop eating peanut butter... Because of my losses in the past I can't believe that I would even risk it I mean am I crazy!?

[Laranna]

Yep I ate it throughout both my pregnancies. DS loves peanut butter!

[[M]umma[M]ia]

Its a myth.. no scientific evidence to support it. I ate heaps of peanut butter and nuts while pregnant and DD loves it.

[Curly]

My DS has severe peanut and cashew allergies.

The standard advice is still to avoid nuts in pregnancy.

DS' allergy specialist told me that anecdotally it does not seem to have made any difference to allergy rates which are still climbing.

This does not mean that if you DO eat nut products your child won't be allergic - this is just another theory. I've heard this one a million times but the fact remains it is still not medical advice.

There are all kinds of theories around but the fact is that the best medical research minds in the world still do not know why nut allergies are on the rise and for the moment it is still luck of the draw as to whether or not your child has a nut allergy until they find out why and what is causing it.

No, I didn't eat nut products when I was pregnant but that was more because I'm not particularly fond of nuts anyway. I think I've only eaten peanut butter about 5 times in my entire life.

I have had all kinds of people speculating to me as to why DS is allergic to nuts and it is infuriating...it is as if they want to pinpoint something I did to cause it and therefore make themselves feel better that they have done the "right" thing and aren't they clever.

The allergy specialist explained that it does tend to happen more with kids where there is a family history of allergies...and not necessarily nut allergies. There is an allergy gene that can manifest itself in different ways - one family member might have hayfever or eczema, another family member may have a food allergy or medication allergy.

Nobody else in my or DH's family has a nut allergy, but there are other allergies around in our families but nothing exceptional. Poor old DS has really copped it, he also had a mild allergy to egg which he has grown out of and is allergic to 2 different types of antibiotic. However, only the nut allergies are life threatening. DD on the other hand seems to be bulletproof and I did not do anything differently when I was pregnant with her.

With severe allergies - a child can be exposed at a very young age - maybe Daddy gave him a kiss after eating peanut butter on toast, maybe it was transmitted via breastmilk (that's the thing, they don't know) - and is somehow sensitised to it, so that the next time they are exposed their immune system goes into overdrive and reacts severely to the substance. Hence the current advice to avoid the nuts while pregnant in case the sensitisation happens in utero.