Real Life Parenting Tip #36

I just was reading something which indicated that many more people than I thought avoid nuts when pregnancy and nursing now. A "family history of allergy" is supposedly at issue, not nut allergy. And all nuts are verboten until much later than we did with our first kid. Is your toddler the littlest one or the 3-year-old? I may be going overboard with caution again, when there is only antibiotic allergy and some questionable claims of non-nut food allergy in our kids' family tree... suddenly everyone else enjoying nut products is jumping out at me, as well as hazelnut candy bars and whatnot, sigh...

Trader Joes has a Nutella equivalent that has no artificial flavors or hydrogenated oils in it, and tastes even better than Nutella (which is hard to do).
RO - serious food allergies are triggered primarily by starting solid foods too early and not breastfeeding. It is highly unlikely to be triggered by giving a formerly (or currently!) breastfed 3 y/o small amounts of protein foods. Food allergies are an immune system response to the proteins getting into the blood stream - usually through a 'leaky gut' (normal in the first 3 - 6 months of life, prolonged in babies fed formula because the curd is larger and more irritating to the gut).

Alicia,
No Trader Joe's around here.

RO,
I was just being sarcastic. Chocolate on bread soothes any savage beast.

Mmmm...Nutella. lol I can see how that can work!

Alicia, that's interesting re: the nut allergies. My eldest is severely allergic to nuts and peanuts. I had been following a strictly vegetarian diet up until she was born, and I ate tons of nuts (thinking it would be very healthy and help in milk production). She was exclusively, ecologically breastfed for the first year (and then didn't wean until 2-1/2), and was intensely collicky, diagnosed with esophogeal reflux and put on zantac for a while. In any case, she first tasted peanut butter off of my finger at about 1-1/2 and I almost lost her. :( She's had two more close calls (at parties--one ingested the other just from playing with children who had had peanuts), so I am always packing safe food for her everywhere I go, but I know that that isn't enough considering the contact allergy. In any case, I always wondered what I had done to predispose her, and I honestly think my diet could have been the culprit. Apparently, some scientists in Britain have conducted a study which seems to connect diets during pregnancy with the prevalence of peanut/nut allergies. That said, there seems to be an epidemic of this kind of thing here and in Europe which makes me think it's got to be due to more than just diet.

(Sorry 'bout highjacking, Pansy!)

Patty - I think that the GERD and meds for it may have also been a contributing factor. One does not have a severely allergic reaction to the first exposure to the allergen - that is the priming exposure that sets up the dysfunctional immune reaction. Hypothetically, the proteins could have passed through the placenta and sensitized the baby, or even through breast milk - but if the baby's gut is properly sealed (one of the functions of colostrum) it is really difficult to set up a true allergy in a 100% breastfed baby. However, that needs to be 100%!
I knew going into it that my kids might be set up for allergies. I tried to do the 100% breastfeeding thing with my first two kids - one was sabotaged by the hospital, ("let mom sleep' - central nursery - 1974). The second was sabotaged by a pediatrician who didn't understand jaundice and threatened me if I didn't agree to give him 24 hours of formula (1976). He was colicky and reacted badly to cow and soy milk so I kept those out of his diet till age 2 (and then he was OK) - the second time he got into his auntie's scrambled egg breakfast (she thought it was cute to see him grabbing them with his fingers and shoving it into his mouth) he got hives down his face from the track of the eggs!
Baby 3 - same jaundice issues but he didn't get the 24 hour formula until age 1 month and he ended up with no allergies. Baby 4 - 100% breastfed. no allergies. severe lactose intolerance, though. Baby 5 - Soy formula while hospitalized for severe jaundice. Eczema from age 2 on, despite breastfeeding to the age of 2. Asthma from the age of 8 on, moderate to severe intermittent. Baby 6 - no formula, no early solids, 100% breast fed, no allergies, but at the age of 16 is starting to become lactose intolerant.

You can make yourself crazy wondering "why". My two 100% breastfed babies are my asthmatics.