Breast-Feeding Cuts Food Allergy Risk

Breast-feeding in the first three months of life appears to help shield children from developing food allergies, according to findings presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in Dallas.

Research has determined a possible role for food allergy prevention strategies in high-risk children, including maternal food avoidance in pregnancy, breast-feeding, maternal food avoidance while breast-feeding, use of hypoallergenic formulas, delayed introduction of allergenic foods and probiotics, noted one expert.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine offered a number of recommendations for children at high risk of allergic diseases:

• Women should avoid peanuts and tree nuts during pregnancy and while breast-feeding.
• If needed, mothers should supplement breast-feeding with a hypoallergenic formula.
• Delay feeding these children solid foods until they're six months old.
• Delay introduction of milk and egg until age 1 and peanut and tree nuts until age 3.
• Start early intervention when signs of food allergy appear (secondary prevention).
  

Another expert said doctors need to consider food allergy as a potential cause of gastrointestinal or dermatological symptoms in patients. "The eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders (EGID) which may affect the esophagus, stomach, colon and rectum are mostly chronic and recurrent disorders that adversely impact quality of life for patients and families," Dr. Amal Assa'ad, director of the Food Allergy & Eosinophilic Disorders Clinic at Cincinnati Children's Medical Center, said in a prepared statement. "Patients with EGID have a high rate of sensitization to food and environmental allergens, and many of them have a high rate of clinical symptoms with various food ingestions. A subset of patients respond to removal of major food allergens from their diet," Assa'ad said. "EGID management often requires multiple specialists, including the primary physician, allergy and immunology, gastroenterology, nutrition and psychology," she noted.

Bonnie - Hmmm. All of this sounds very familiar :)