14 DAY TRIAL // A new research found out that pregnant women who eat peanuts may put their children at increased risk for peanut allergy.
Scott H. Sicherer, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and leader of the study said that “researchers in recent years have been uncertain about the role of peanut consumption during pregnancy on the risk of peanut allergy in infants.
“While our study does not definitively indicate that pregnant women should not eat peanut products during pregnancy, it highlights the need for further research in order make recommendations about dietary restrictions.”
Under Sicherer's authority, researchers at five US study sites looked at 503 infants aged 3-15 months, who had no previous diagnosis of peanut allergy, and were likely to have milk or egg allergies, or suffered from serious eczema and were positive when tested for milk or egg allergies (factors linked to an increased risk of peanut allergy).
After several blood tests, 140 babies proved to be very sensitive to peanuts and this result corresponded to the consumption of peanuts during pregnancy.
The authors admitted though that the study was rather limited, one defect being the reliance on the self-reporting of dietary habits among pregnant women.
But despite these limitations, it has established a potential risk factor that could contribute to risk reduction, if confirmed by controlled, interventional studies.
Dr. Sicherer said that “peanut allergy is serious, usually persistent, potentially fatal, and appears to be increasing in prevalence.
“Our study is an important step toward identifying preventive measures that, if verified, may help reduce the impact of peanut allergy.”
Back in 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that women who knew they had a family record of allergies, should consider avoiding eating peanut products during pregnancy and breast feeding; but in 2008, this recommendation was withdrawn, because of the limited scientific evidence.
Now, the Consortium of Food Allergy Research (CoFAR) was just awarded a renewed $29.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, in order to continue its observational study, and provide a better understanding of the risk factors that lead to the development of peanut allergy, as well as allergies to milk and egg.
The data are published in the November 1 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.