Sophie Cross is a freelance PR and events consultant.

She has a 2½ year old daughter Francesca.
Are we fuelling a peanut allergy epidemic?

by Sophie Cross

Since our story on Anaphylaxis (September newsletter) there have been a few articles on the subject following a report from the UK that suggested parents may be fuelling the rise in nut and other allergies in children by shielding them from known high risk foodstuffs such as peanuts.

The research by the British House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, suggested that repeated exposure of a child's immune system to peanut allergen at an early age might result in tolerance and prevent the development of a dangerous allergy. It has been debated for years that perhaps our need to keep our children clean and wholesome and away from dust and dirt is in fact fuelling asthma.

But Australian experts are divided. The Sydney Morning Herald reported the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy said that although avoiding all nuts and shellfish may be recommended until age two in most children, and until age four in children with a family history of allergy or those born premature, there is no evidence to support this. It also said avoiding certain foods during pregnancy and breastfeeding has not been shown to cut the risk of allergic disease.

President of Anaphylaxis Australia, Maria Said, who was quoted in our previous article on Anaphylaxis, said many mothers without a history of allergy were unnecessarily avoiding nut products because they had been scared by stories of children dying from severe reactions.

This may indeed be true and let's hope so, because it's far easier to expose ourselves and our children to allergens than to deny our pregnancy cravings and our children's enquiring little fingers and mouths!

The only proof out there to help is that children born into families with a genetic tendency to develop allergies are more likely to have allergic diseases such as eczema and food allergies than those with no family history. However that still does not mean that children with family history of asthma or allergies will indeed have allergies themselves.

Its a very tricky subject and most of the time just seems to be the luck of the draw. I for one have a small child who is completely tolerant of all foods (to date anyway, although she's always carsick when she's had dairy!) and has eaten nuts since around 18 months. I ate plenty of nuts while I was pregnant, having had a doctor with five of her own children who was completely laid back about the whole food affair. Would Francesca be intolerant of nuts if I'd avoided them? Probably not, but I don't have a family history of any real allergies.

Jo Abi, mum of “Phillip eggs and nuts” didn’t have an egg free diet while she was pregnant… would Phillip have avoided his egg allergy if Jo had been strictly egg free? How would she have known to avoid eggs in the first place?

We live in a society of processed foods and toxins, dust, chemicals and all sorts of things that may cause allergies. With so many allergens in all processed food products, we have no idea we’re eating half the time anyway. Maybe it’s the fault of the processed society? I have no idea if allergy studies have been done with families who follow strict natural/unprocessed diets and those who eat processed foods? I assume they have…

The truth is that we just don’t know. Allergies are on the increase. It could be to do with shielding ourselves (while pregnant) and our small children from too much and in so doing, diminishing their immune systems and fuelling allergies. It could just as easily be that when we eat known allergens while pregnant in any quantity we’re fuelling allergies. Or is it that we’re eating way too much rubbish and bringing children into an increasingly toxic world, so allergies are just increasing by generation?

Interesting that allergies are so less prevalent in developing countries than in the so-called developed world…

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, who chaired the House of Lords committee's investigation, said: "Academics and clinicians have told us that a growing body of evidence has suggested this guidance may not only be failing to prevent peanut allergy, but might possibly even be counterproductive."

The committee supported a Learning About Peanut Allergy study, which is investigating a theory that repeatedly exposing a child's immune system to peanut at an early age teaches their body to tolerate peanut proteins.

We wait with baited breath and in the meantime, there’s nothing we can do but carry on as sensibly as we can, be vigilant and aware of the symptoms of anaphylaxis; educated in its treatment and look out for those children we know to have this potentially life-threatening condition with as much diligence and care as we would if they were our own.

BREAKING NEWS

Allergy lifesaver 'Alex's legacy'
The Age – Christian Catalano – October 30 2007

Yesterday, more than three years after Alex Baptist collapsed at kindergarten from a suspected reaction to peanuts, the State Government announced new laws to protect thousands of other children who suffer severe allergies.

At a cost of around $1.3 million a year, staff from every school and child-care service in Victoria will be trained to protect children who go into anaphylactic shock – a sudden and potentially fatal allergic reaction.

Read the full story...
 
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