Do peanuts in pregnancy cause allergies?

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Since 1998 advice in the UK has been that pregnant mothers who have atopic tendancies (asthma, ezcema, allergies etc) should avoid peanuts completely and avoid feeding them to their children until the age of 3 as it risked increasing the likelihood that the child would develop a severe allergy.

Peanuts have always played a large part of diets in our family and although there are atopic tendencies in older generations, they've still been eaten and no one has a severe allergy to peanuts. So, I continued to eat peanuts (in moderation I admit) when pregnant. These are now the only nut that our son is NOT allergic (somewhat ironic).

Now there is debate as to whether the advice was correct as the greatest increase in allergies in recent years has been peanut allergy. I think everyone is aware of the potential issues, has seen lagels on food. People with children at nursery (and some schools) will be used to the "no nuts on the premises" rule. (Yet an article I was listening to on the radio this am was discussing how some schools aren't able to accept children who suffer with anaphylactic shock to peanuts... our local health care service even sent someone into nursery to train a team of staff on how to recognise symptoms and use an Epipen)

Personally I think that things are OK in moderation. I'd love to know more about what triggers a tendency towards allergies - I breast fed our son until he was 8 months, yet he still has lots of allergies, so that didn't help! I'm sure that our general environment and paranoia has more to do with it than anything else. The environment is cleaner in terms of germs and general dirt than 30 years ago, but much more polluted with chemicals that we don't know the long term effects of. Surely this is what is causing the increasing in atopic symptoms in children and adults, not eating peanuts!

http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?n=8009... 

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1. Re: Do peanuts in pregnancy cause allergies? by jane, 367 days ago

   In the Wall Street Journal today, there is an article that refers to a recent report by Dr Sicherer of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine's Jaffe Food Allergy Institute in New York, that states that there is no real evidence that avoiding foods during breast feeding or delaying exposure to certain foods helps to prevent allergies in children.
   
   
   "The report says:
   • There is no convincing evidence that women who avoid peanuts or other foods during pregnancy or breast-feeding lower their child's risk of allergies.
   
   • For infants with a family history of allergies, exclusive breast-feeding for at least four months can lessen the risk of rashes and allergy to cow's milk.
   
   • Exclusive breast-feeding for at least three months protects against wheezing in babies, but whether it prevents asthma in older children is unclear.
   
   • There is modest evidence for feeding hypoallergenic formulas to susceptible babies if they are not solely breast-fed.
   
   • There is no good evidence that soy-based formulas prevent allergies.
   
   • There is no convincing evidence that delaying the introduction of foods such as eggs, fish or peanut butter to children prevents allergies. Babies should not get solid food before 4 to 6 months of age, however."
   
   I have to say that as a mother with a child who has a number of allergies (some to things that I never eat!) it's reassuring to hear that the times I had certain foods or gave him foods didn't affect the level of allergy. The one thing that I would like to know for certain - can the foods a mother eats affect a breast feeding child if they are allergic to them? I certainly think that there is a link (I was looking at some old photos and saw how bad his eczema used to be - how much of that was due to the dairy in my diet?)

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