Can Diet During Pregnancy Affect Food Allergies in Babies?
A National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored clinical trial testing whether maternal consumption of peanuts and eggs during pregnancy and breastfeeding prevents babies from developing an early sign of allergies to these foods began today. Food allergy affects about 8% of children in the United States and sometimes causes severe or life-threatening reactions. Peanut and egg are two of the most common early-childhood food allergens. The study will enroll pregnant mothers who are not allergic to peanut or egg but whose babies are at high risk for food allergy because the mother has a parent, sibling or child with allergic disease. NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is funding the trial.
“Introducing food allergens such as peanut and egg into infants’ diets around four to six months of age has proven to be an important element of food allergy prevention, but this intervention comes too late for some children,” said Alkis Togias, chief of NIAID’s Allergy, Asthma, and Airway Biology Branch. “We need additional, earlier strategies to help prevent the development of food allergies in children at high risk for them.”
Excerpted from the NIH
