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Eating Peanuts While Pregnant Could Cause Asthma

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Jul 15, 2008 7:39 pm US/Mountain

Eating Peanuts While Pregnant Could Cause Asthma

Reporting
Dr. Dave Hnida
DENVER (CBS4) ― Pregnant women who regularly eat a simple peanut butter sandwich could increase the risk of their children having health problems later on. The risk of asthma could go up more than 50 percent.

In the study from the American Thoracic Society, it was all types of nuts, but peanuts, especially in the form of peanut butter, was the most common type of nut that was eaten.

Dr. Dave Hnida said pregnant women don't have to avoid nuts totally, but should limit how often they eat any type of nut.

Researchers looked at more than 4,000 pregnant women. Those who ate some form of nuts almost every day had children who had a 50 percent higher rate of asthma compared to children born to mothers who ate nuts about once a week.

The risk wasn't just after birth. The 50 percent rise was seen all the way up until a child hit 8 years old.

Researchers looked at other foods besides nuts, including milk, dairy, fruits and vegetables. The only link they found to asthma was with nuts. Nuts even caused more of a problem than children who had family histories of allergy or lived in a household where they were exposed to smoke.

It's not clear why nuts during pregnancy may be a problem but there's a possibility allergens from nuts cross into the womb and interfere with immune system of a developing baby; and then predispose that baby to asthma after birth.

Babies whose mothers ate nuts during pregnancy did not have a higher risk of peanut allergy after birth. It was simply a higher rate of asthma and other respiratory diseases.

"I don't want someone to think peanut butter is poison," Hnida said. "A small amount seems fine. It's the several days a week moms who had children with problems."

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