How to stop your baby having food allergies: eat right during pregnancy and breastfeeding

When she was pregnant, mother-of-two Jasmine Smith made sure she enjoyed a varied diet. The 34-year-old founder/designer of Raven + Rose, a lingerie label in Hong Kong, ate a huge array of foods so her children would be exposed to them from the get-go.

The only foods she avoided were raw fish, shellfish and some cheeses, because of their potential to cause food poisoning. Her doctors never advised her to stay away from particular foods, including allergenic ones like peanuts and eggs.

“In the past, pregnant and nursing women were told to avoid allergy-provoking foods like tree nuts, peanuts, soy, fish, shellfish, milk and eggs, so as to prevent their babies from developing allergies to these foods later on,” says Karen Chong, a dietitian at Matilda International Hospital. “But that’s no longer the case. Now, mums-to-be and new mums are generally advised to eat a variety of foods while they’re pregnant and breastfeeding.”

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New research out of Boston Children’s Hospital seems to support recent allergy-prevention guidelines for pregnant women. The study, which was published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine in November, says that eating allergenic foods during pregnancy can, in fact, protect your child from developing food allergies, especially if you breastfeed.

In the study, pregnant mice that consumed peanuts and eggs passed on protective antibodies to their offspring through nursing. These antibodies caused the newborn mice to produce allergen-specific regulatory T immune cells, which enabled them to tolerate the allergenic foods.

Interestingly, avoiding allergenic foods while pregnant or breastfeeding is no guarantee that your child will not develop a food allergy. Dr Adrian Wu Young Yuen, a registered specialist in allergy and immunology at the Centre for Allergy and Asthma Care in Hong Kong’s Central district, says: “Studies have not shown a correlation between eating certain foods during pregnancy and the subsequent development of food allergies. Likewise, avoidance of these foods during pregnancy has not been shown to reduce the risk of sensitisation to these foods.”

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However, it’s important to note that exposure to allergens through the skin may be a risk factor for developing food allergies, says Dr Michael Pistiner, director of food allergy advocacy, education and prevention at the Food Allergy Centre at MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston, Massachusetts. This is why you shouldn’t apply food to your baby’s skin. And if you handle food, Pistiner advises you to wash your hands thoroughly when you’re done, especially if you’re going to be touching your baby after, and if your baby is not yet eating those foods.