Are you pregnant and craving peanuts or a tall glass of cold milk? The latest advice from experts says there's no reason to avoid certain foods to prevent allergies in your baby -- despite previous medical suggestions.
The latest: Breast-feeding helps prevent babies' allergies, but there's no good evidence for avoiding certain foods during pregnancy, using soy formula or delaying the introduction of solid foods beyond six months.
That's the word from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is updating earlier suggestions that may have made some parents feel like they weren't doing enough to prevent food allergies, asthma and allergic rashes.
The old advice: In August 2000, the doctors' group advised mothers of infants with a family history of allergies to avoid cow's milk, eggs, fish, peanuts and tree nuts while breast-feeding.
That advice, along with a recommended schedule for introducing certain risky foods, left some moms and dads blaming themselves if their children went on to develop allergies.
"They say, 'I shouldn't have had milk in my coffee,'" said Dr. Scott Sicherer of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine's Jaffe Food Allergy Institute in New York. "I've been saying, 'We don't really have evidence that it causes a problem. Don't be on a guilt trip about it.'"
New guidance: Sicherer helped write the new guidance report for pediatricians, published in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. Earlier advice about restricting certain foods from moms' and babies' diets has been tossed out and the only sure-fire advice remaining is to breast-feed.
Point by point:
