I was an allergic child.  From age 5 on, I suffered from frequent stuffy nose and watery eyes, and worse, from asthma.  My allergy triggers ranged from pollen, to all kinds of animal dander (cats, dogs, birds, you name it), to hay, house dust and cigarette smoke.  Since most of our family and friends owned pets, and since it seemed like something or other was always in flower, I was usually unwell.

For those of you who do not have asthma, or who have never known someone who does, to be in the midst of an asthma attack is to feel like you're suffocating.  It can be very scary, especially if the asthma sufferer is a small child.  Asthma is a terrible condition that I wouldn't wish on anyone.  What a blessing that there are inhalers and other treatments to keep asthma attacks at bay!

Needless to say, you can be sure I was determined to do whatever I could to help keep our children from developing asthma.  Unfortunately, I didn't do enough to protect our oldest from food allergens, and made a few errors with our next two babies, too.  Our oldest now has a lifelong and potentially dangerous allergy to peanut, and sometimes wheezes when recovering from colds or flu, or after laughing (or crying, when she was much younger).  Thankfully our younger four have escaped serious longterm problems, but even they had mild to moderate allergies in infancy.

As you read our family's allergy story, please note the warnings and tips sprinkled throughout.  As with everything else on this site, I'm sharing my mistakes and what I learned from them to help you avoid doing the same things, so that your and your baby's lives may be easier and healthier!

How I Unwittingly Set Up My First Baby for Severe Allergies

When I got pregnant with our firstborn, my husband and I decided to do a Bradley® birth.  That meant taking the Bradley® course and following their high-protein prenatal diet.  This is a very good diet, emphasizing generous daily intake of protein (80+ grams a day), plenty of clear fluids, and adequate salt.  The idea is to promote healthy growth of baby, a strong, birth-ready mom and baby, and to help prevent complications like excess fluid retention, elevated blood pressure, and even eclampsia (formerly known as toxemia).  It is based on the Brewer diet, which in turn is based on years of research on pregnant women following the Brewer diet vs. those not doing so (e.g. following traditional recommendations such as restricting salt, not emphasizing protein intake, etc.)

Lots of pregnant moms have followed the Brewer/Bradley diet with great success and no allergies for them or their babies.  But in the case of a family history of food or other allergy, this diet really should be modified by substituting foods or even avoiding certain foods (especially peanut). 

Recommended Ways Parents Can Help Protect Susceptible Babies from Developing Food Allergy American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) - Policy Statement RE0005, August 2000, Hypoallergenic Infant Formulas.  Scroll down to 3(b) under "Recommendations":  when there is a family history of food allergy, a pregnant mother may eat an unrestricted diet "with the possible exception of excluding peanuts".  During breastfeeding, however, a restricted diet is called for (if the family history includes allergy):  avoidance of all nuts, including peanut, is recommended;  and elimination of common allergens such as egg and dairy is suggested.  It is also advised that the allergy-prone baby be fed exclusively with breastmilk or hypoallergenic formula up to the age of 6 months, and that breastfeeding be continued until age 1 or longer, with typically allergenic foods being introduced on a delayed basis. The U.K. government recommends that in families with a history of allergy symptoms such as asthma, excema, or other symptoms, pregnant and nursing mothers should completely avoid peanuts and peanut products.  See also Women warned to avoid peanuts during pregnancy and lactation. In light of studies like the following, I feel that the AAP recommendations especially do not go far enough.  Direct evidence for transplacental allergen transfer A case of cow's milk allergy in the neonatal period--evidence for intrauterine sensitization? The placenta has been referred to as a "bloody sieve" when it comes to medications, so it stands to reason that allergens, too, can cross it and get to the baby.  In my opinion -- and I'm "just a mom", and my only qualifications are having lived through food allergies from mild to severe in my five babies -- it makes sense that if allergies run in the family, the expectant mother should not only eliminate peanut (and tree nuts and shellfish) from her diet, but should also at least rotate, if not eliminate, common allergens such as dairy products and wheat with similar products (like goat's milk products, and alternate grains such as millet, oats, rice, etc. which can be found at health food stores) in her day-to-day eating so that her unborn baby is not exposed to too much of any one food too often.  Why wait until baby is born and already sensitized, to start eliminating foods?  I realize there are genetic and other factors, and that food rotation and/or substitution in pregnancy might not head off all of baby's allergies, but done carefully, it just might help to either prevent a few allergies or lessen their severity.

If a mother is aware of her own food allergies and knows what to substitute for, that's great.  But as a first-time mom, I had no idea that I had food sensitivities, nor that my allergic history should have clued me in to be extra-careful with my prenatal eating habits, so as to protect my unborn baby from becoming sensitized to certain foods in my diet.  The Bradley® diet plan recommends frequent, often daily servings of some of the most common food allergens: dairy, egg, peanuts and/or tree nuts, tomatoes and strawberries, whole grains (and what do most people think of when it comes to whole grains?  Whole wheat!) and so on.  Our diet handouts included several cautions to substitute foods if mother had food allergies, but I ignored those warnings because I didn't think I was allergic to any foods.

Obediently and with the best of intentions, I set out to consume as much protein as I could, every day.  The cheapest and most easily-available forms of protein were things like milk, cottage cheese, eggs, peanut butter... all common allergens!  I carefully measured my portions and counted every gram of protein, being sure I got at least 80 grams per day.  My goal was a strong, healthy baby, and I thought that if eating all the foods on the Bradley® diet plan was good, eating more of the same could only be better!  (This is not something Brewer/Bradley recommends, by the way -- it was just my dumb idea.)  So instead of the recommended serving of 8 oz. milk, I would drink 12 or even 16 oz. at a time.  I would double up on the recommended portions of cottage cheese or egg, as well.  I also ate plenty of extra yogurt, cheese and ice cream, and lots and lots of trail mix and peanut butter.  Anything for a healthy baby!  And by the third trimester, my baby let me know frequently and forcefully that she was indeed quite strong (if not in the best of health!)  Often, within two hours of a meal, she would be kicking and thrashing and tossing and turning in my womb.  If she wasn't writhing around, she was hiccuping;  there were prolonged hiccup sessions almost daily, always occurring after meals.  I thought all that hiccuping was just a normal thing unborn babies did, and I was very pleased that my baby was so vigorous and active.  What I didn't realize was that she was suffering daily allergic reactions to the dairy, peanut and other foods I was consuming in such frequent and generous quantities!

It is now known that allergic sensitivity to specific foods can begin in babies as early as six months' gestation, aka, the beginning of the third trimester (right when our unborn daughter began to be so uncomfortable).  This is a fascinating and troubling fact!  If you want to read more about protecting your unborn child from allergies, a good starting point is the book Is This Your Child?:  Discovering and Recognizing Unrecognized Allergies in Children and Adults by Doris Rapp, M.D.  (Dr. Rapp also has a website with contact information.)

Birth Order: Another Piece of the Allergy Puzzle It turns out that a mom's diet during pregnancy is only part of the story.  Another possible determiner in whether or not a child develops allergies is his or her birth order.  See Best to be born last and the related study, Does the sibling effect have its origin in utero?: Investigating birth order, cord blood immunoglobulin E concentration, and allergic sensitization at age 4 years. In my family tree, many of us firstborns have been the allergic ones;  our siblings were often not allergic as babies and children.  There were exceptions, however;  for example, my youngest sister has a life-threatening peanut allergy, while I can handle peanut just fine (I'm strongly reactive to certain respiratory allergens, though).  Among my own five children, my eldest is certainly the most allergic (with respect to peanut).  Her younger brothers have little to no allergies, though our youngest son reacts strongly to a few things.  On the other hand, I have read of families where the firstborn had no allergies and a younger sibling had several, or cases where there was no family history of allergies, yet one or more of the children still became allergic.  So while in some cases it may seem easy to find "causes" or "triggers" for a child's allergies, in others, the picture is not so clear.  The allergy puzzle is complicated, and as moms, we -- myself included -- need to recognize that it's not "all our fault" that our children developed allergies in utero or after birth... particularly if we didn't know any better at the time.  That's where our obstetricians and midwives need to step up to the plate and give us better dietary advice when we are pregnant and nursing, since diet is one area where we do have some control.  It is not enough for our birth attendants to vaguely tell us to "eat healthy" and "be sure to get enough protein."  If our family's health history includes allergies, that ought to be a red flag, causing our OBs/midwives to at least warn us to keep the most troublesome foods (peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish) out of our diets.  With all the recent press on the rise of peanut and other food allergies in Western society, hopefully medical and midwifery schools are now training their students to equip pregnant moms, especially those with a family history of allergies, to be more allergy-aware in their meal planning and dietary choices.

During the final three months of pregnancy, I experienced our unborn daughter's vigorous kicking and tossing, and prolonged hiccuping, after most meals.  Allergy troubles aside, we sailed through all our prenatal exams, and at 41+ weeks, eased into a on-and-off labor that continued at home for three nights.  The third night found me in hospital and utterly exhausted.  Our little girl emerged some eight hours later, alert and peaceful in spite of the long labor and difficult birth.  I distinctly remember what happened soon afterward.  I was still in a semi-reclining position, awaiting episiotomy repair, when a nurse placed our baby tummy-down on my chest.  And our daughter did a remarkable thing not to be expected of a newborn.  She calmly lifted her head, bracing herself with her arms, and slowly turned her head from side to side, looking at her daddy and the nurses.  I'll never forget our nurse-midwife exclaiming, "Wow!  Look at that head control!"

Our Allergic Firstborn: Strong, Developmentally Advanced, and Miserable!

Our daughter was first seen by the pediatrician at three days of age.   He, too, found her strength and head control  to be exceptional in a baby so young.  I personally feel that her strength resulted from all the exercise she'd gotten in utero, and I suspect that such strength is not all that unusual in highly allergic babies (see Rapp, pp. 102, 108).  Our baby girl went on to be early in all her milestones, especially walking and talking;  early walking - often arising from baby's continued "overactivity" - is another hallmark of the allergic infant (Rapp, p. 108). 

Unfortunately, our daughter also suffered from many of the classic and more unpleasant symptoms of severe allergy:  unrelenting colic (fussiness, digestive pain and discomfort);  excessive spitting up;  persistent eczema which often had a "weeping" appearance, and which cracked and bled where she would scratch (even with mittens on);  frequent stuffy, runny nose, throat mucus, and so on.  Within one month of birth, she was so miserable, so cranky, and so hard to comfort, that I was desperate to find relief for both of us.  Yet I was clueless as to how to help her.  To bring in plenty of good, rich milk, I was still eating lots of dairy, eggs, peanut butter, and other common allergens, as I had while pregnant.  And she continued to be very fussy and uncomfortable, and to sleep quite poorly, day and night.

At our daughter's regular two month checkup, the pediatrician said as he examined her oozing, encrusted skin and heard of her wakefulness and colicky misery, "Oh, that's from allergies... she'll outgrow them."  He offered no advice on how to go about finding and eliminating the cause(s), and thereby ease her symptoms.  What is even more troubling is that he did not emphasize the need to keep the problem foods completely out of baby's and my diet for up to several years, in order to protect her from developing permanent food allergies.  He could have advised me on how to help her, but instead, he basically shrugged it off, and I was left as clueless as I'd been before we'd gone to the appointment.

One time the eczema in her ears got so bad that they were totally stopped up with gooey, crusty, putrefying residue.  I took her to another pediatrician who was quite dismissive of my concerns, and simply wrote out a prescription for a cortisone cream.  He said I could use it on all her itchy places, not just her ears, and that it was quite safe. Like right, I was going to slather my baby girl with steroid cream every day!

Go on to Part 2, Becoming My Daughter's "Allergy Detective" to read about peanut allergy and more.