Looks like moms everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief if their baby is found licking a big sibling’s peanut butter-clad hands.
From a recent Medscape article Nana, my mom-in-law/lactation consultant, sent me:
“If you’re going to have a peanut allergy, it has nothing to do with when you were introduced to peanuts. If a mother eats peanuts during pregnancy or lactation or if she feeds her 6-month-old peanut butter, it has no effect on whether you get peanut allergy. If you’re going to get it, you’re going to get it.”
And the bottom-feeder baby who roams the floor in search of any crumb from a forbidden food that somehow misses the suction of the every-other-day vacuum routine will probably be okay, too:
“Now we can tell mothers: If you have exclusively breastfed for 4 months and your child is not at risk for allergy, you can introduce any food at 6 or 8 months or whatever. [Solid foods should still not be introduced before the infant is 4-6 months old, according to the report.] In children at risk for atopic disease, simply avoiding foods for a certain time may delay the onset of allergy, but it doesn’t prevent allergy.”
Read the whole thing here. (You’ll have to complete a free registration process to view it.) The article is based on a revised American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement and recent research findings that downplay the role of diet in the development of allergies.
*Thanks, Nana, for always keeping me abreast – pun intended – of the latest news relating to breastfeeding and baby nutrition.