Did You Eat Peanut Butter While Pregnant?

Ate whatever I wanted whenever I wanted and my kids have the same allergies I had, dust, and mold.

There is a new study out that shows the protection from things that babies may be allergic to, like nuts, is actually causing the allergies because they are never allowed to build up a tolerance to nuts.

To me this is the same as the antibacterial crusade, it is causing bigger problems than it is helping

Oh I ate lunch meat too! Bwahahahahaha

I don't think twice about this sort of stuff unless they list several studies that indicate this might be true. Anyone can give an opinion whether it's true or not.

I ate peanut butter like crazy and none of my kids have peanut allergies. I gained 40 pounds though. LOL.

I ate everything that wasn't nailed down. =)

Never heard to avoid nuts when pregnant... When was that the rule?

I ate nuts and peanut butter when I was pregnant and my kids have no allergies.

Yes - I ate peanut butter and nuts when ever I felt like it.
Peanuts/cashews/almonds/etc were a great snack that helped keep me from getting hungry again so fast.
We've never had any nut/food allergies in our family and we often eat/cook with nuts.
We love pecan pie during the holidays!

I ate anything I wanted ( moderation of course) and no issues. That included lunch meats, tuna, steaks, chicken, seafood, salads, pb, nuts, candy, fruit... Basically everything but ice cream & desserts because I never got into ice cream, cakes and pies!! I still don't have a taste for those.

ETA: I did not drink alcohol and we are daily wine drinkers.

Don't get sucked into the Internet hype and scare tactics.

Enjoy your pregnancy!! Think balance and moderation!!!

I ate it and my kid is fine.

In fact, now they are suggesting that kids be exposed to more foods earlier on. The pendulum keeps swinging.

I work in food science, and we're seeing that overall strengthening of the immune system is key in actually reversing most food sensitivities as well as other allergies and autoimmune conditions. I think you should eat what you want. Women have been eating all kinds of foods while pregnant for centuries - the recent rise in food allergies doesn't really have anything to do with that, it seems. There are so many other factors, and pure food doesn't seem to be one of them.

i ate as much as i ever do, which is 'only occasionally.' my younger was born with pretty severe environmental allergies. after years of the shots to alleviate them he developed a fairly severe allergy to some fruits and a milder one to peanut butter.
allergies are very poorly understood at this point. they just don't know. i'd go with the 'moderation' theory and get on with your life.
khairete
S.

ETA - I ate eggs too. No issues.

I ate peanut butter and my kids don't have allergies to food.

I had 4 peanut butter sandwiches most days and peanut butter chocolate shakes with banana all the time. I also ate lots of pistachios. None of my 4 kids have peanut allergies. Gotta love the internet hype.

I did eat PB through all three of my pregnancies - sometimes up to 1 can a week (kind of an addiction). None of mine have nut allergies.

I ate anything I wanted, including foods that were on the supposed no-no list, such as sushi. I love peanut butter and ate a ton of it.
The only food allergy my daughter had was to berries, and she outgrew it by the time she was five.

Yep, with all 4 babies. None of my kids have nut allergies.

Yes, I ate it, and no, my children do not have nut allergies. The most recent science I've seen on the subject is a study out of Israel, where the incident of peanut allergies is very low, and where very young children eat a popular snack made from peanuts. The study strongly suggests that by holding off exposing our children to peanuts we may be accidentally increasingly the frequency of dangerous peanut allergies. This was in the media a couple of months ago, so I imagine you could find it if you google key words.

Purposely ate a lot of peanut butter and nuts while pregnant, figuring early exposure would be a good thing. I was happy to see the new research confirms my hunch. Neither of my kids has a nut allergy.

I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches several times a week while pregnant with each of my children. My son had a peanut allergy (which he has since outgrown), and the second, no allergy. Some doctors tend to think allergies are more of a hereditary thing. My niece (husband's side) had a peanut allergy, as did my MIL. Interestingly, they both outgrew them as children, too.
When they all outgrew the nut allergy, environmental allergies set in. They are ALL allergic to the same environmental allergens (grass, cat, dog). Seems like genetics to me, at least in this case.

I ate it all the time and son has no issues. One thing ped told me is that if baby is accidentally fed peanut butter, etc in first year, and has no issues, keep feeding it on a regular basis, or allergies could develop.

Yes. And my kids have no allergies.
And I have a girlfriend that avoided everything during pregnancy, and wound up with a daughter allergic to nuts, wheat and lactose.

So...lend very little science to that theory.

Yes. I went out of my way to eat all sorts of nuts. I just had this silly, non-evidence-based thought that if I get my babies used to nuts while they're inside me, then they'll be fine with them later on.

Stupid, and I genuinely don't really think it works that way, but none of my children have nut allergies anyway.

Yes, peanut butter has always been a huge staple of mine. No, my kids are not allergic.

I ate PB throughout all my pregnancies (a lot of PB!) and none of my kids had nut allergies.

I ate all kinds of nuts, not just peanuts.

My kids were all tested for allergies at birth and also again as school children. No nut allergies.

** No one on either side of our families has nut allergies, except one niece who is ok with peanuts (just not tree nuts). She didn't know until she was an adult.

The bottom line: the doctors really don't know and that's why the information keeps changing. I have a son with food allergies, including peanuts, so I've kept up with the changes over the years.

At this point, the general belief is that exposure is good for babies unless you have a reason to believe they are likely to have the allergy (family history being the key factor). If there's no reason to expect an allergy, then it's better to eat it than to avoid it.

Most allergists also now believe that postponing exposure to toddlers is not the best way to approach it; rather, they can be given peanut products when they are a year or two old and don't need to wait until they are three. Introducing it early enough can help their bodies learn to accept it as food.

The key to introducing peanut products, and really any new food, is to give a small amount first and watch for a reaction. If they DO have a peanut allergy, it will likely only take a very small amount to cause a problem. Have Benadryl on hand and know the appropriate dose (likely one teaspoon for a toddler) so you're prepared just in case.

Eat peanut butter throughout your pregnancy unless there is a family history of food allergies.

For the record, I didn't really alter my diet with either of my pregnancies (I'm not a big PB eater but I do love my Reese's). My son has several food allergies and my daughter has none.

Yes, I ate peanuts and peanut products, but not 4x/week. Eat it if you enjoy it, but I don't see the need to do it religiously. I also gave my daughter peanuts, peanut butter, almonds, and almond butter before she turned 1 despite AAP advocating against it at the time. She has no nut allergy.

What does your doctor say? And try to avoid doing too much research on the internet.

I ate it nuts/PB with my first, and am eating them with my second. No nut allergies in our family. The newest research shows that avoiding it can actually cause an allergy if they were never exposed in the womb. Unless you have an allergy in your family don't sweat it. Everything in moderation.

I lived on peanut M&M's during my pregnancy. (Attempted to be nutritious but I eventually caved.)
My 5yr old has no nut allergies (as of yet).

Yes, I did. I have no idea how much or how often.. but I didn't pay any attention whatsoever. I'm sure I had a few PB & J sandwiches at some point. And restaurant meals out (at some steakhouses there were still roasted peanuts available for snacking while you waited)... My kids are 16 and 13. Neither has food allergies of any kind, and both ate all kinds of stuff "early"... If they could physically master eating the food without it being a choking problem, they were allowed to have it. Eggs as early as 5 or 6 months... yep. Scrambled eggs are easy, nutritious and easy to eat (soft). Olives. Cheeses. Strawberries. And yes... peanuts. Peanut butter and actual peanuts as well (the nuts by age 2 I think, since choking had to be watched, and peanut butter as soon as they would eat a bite of sandwich).

Son had lots of environmental allergies, but no food allergies at all. We got a dog when our daughter wasn't quite 3 (son was 6) and she has no environmental allergies nor food allergies. Not sure if the dog is related to that or not.

I know when *I* was a kid, nobody was concerned with how old toddlers/babies were before they were offered foods.... unless they just couldn't physically manage to eat it. And there weren't near the amount of food allergies that there seem to be today. Of course, there weren't GMOs either.

Yep ate nuts and loved peanut butter. Was super easy at the end because it didn't cause heartburn like most foods. No allergies here to any foods in my kids either.
On a side note, I ate peanuts while breastfeeding too. Not all the time but when I felt like eating it. :)
I think new research and studies have encouraged eating nuts in pregnancy and while breastfeeding to prevent allergies in kids later.

I ate it. Can't tell you how often. My DD is allergic to *apples*. I wasn't told to avoid peanut butter.

I only avoided things like raw fish (not a sushi fan anyway) and lunchmeat and alcohol.

I ate peanut butter everyday with my son, not so much with my daughter because I craved different things with her. None of my kids have any food allergies.

Nuts of all kinds were one of my go to foods when pregnant. I had pb&j sandwiches for lunch and a few handfuls of almond or cashews for afternoon snack.

No nut allergies in my kids.

Yes, I ate it. I didn't avoid any food while pregnant. All 4 kids have no allergies. (the 2nd one had a milk protein allergy as an infant but outgrew it by 18 months. He's nearly 8 now).

Try to take away my peanut butter and see what happens LOL I LOVE peanut butter and never stopped eating it. Not sure how often I ate it during any of my pregnancies.

None of my kids have any food allergies. Other allergies ... yeah ... mostly seasonal type stuff, and my daughter is allergic to biting/stinging insects. But all the allergies my kids have ... run in my family anyway.

I ate peanut butter quite regularly while expecting both kids and neither has any food allergies that we know of. I know of one woman ate peanut butter a lot while expecting her first child, who has a very severe allergy to tree nuts and peanuts; she avoided peanut butter with her second and third children, who do not have the nut allergy. HOWEVER, that is one example and it is probably just due to the genetic roll of the dice, given my experience.

Hi Bumbee, yes I ate peanut butter (and lots of other nuts, nuts are pretty much the perfect food) while pregnant, no my kids do not have nut allergies.

:)

I ate whatever I wanted, including nuts of all types, with both pregnancies. No allergies in either kiddo.

I am curious who told you to avoid nuts during pregnancy, that is a new one for me.

I didn't avoid eating anything in particular, so I'm sure I ate PB and other nuts on occasion. The only thing I abstained from when pregnant was alcohol. My kids don't have any allergies.

I ate pb with both pregnancies...no food allergies.

With my daughter I probably ate the most because I was gestational diabetic and had to eat small meals and snacks often. PB w/ crackers was a good one for me.

I ate peanut butter, cheese, chocolate.. Pretty much anything I wanted.
I'll never forget that the last thing I ate before I had my son was a bowl of pasta with sauce. My son's favorite food is italian-go figure!

Anyways, yes. I ate a ton of nuts, as well as peanut butter. My son eats a PB and J sandwich everyday at school!

I ate a lot with my first and not as much with my second. Neither have nut allergies. I just ate whatever sounded good to me and had as much protein as possible and peanut butter is a good source of protein.

I don't think they know what causes them. I have known two families with nut allergies. In both cases they couldn't figure out why they had one just that they did.

Good luck this is one of those we don't know yet issues.

The only thing I didn't eat was sushi...

Yes. I ate a fair amount of pb while pregnant. (That's when I learned how tasty pb on apples is!) Neither of my kiddos is allergic to pb.

I ate peanut butter with all my pregancies as a way to get some protein. Appetite during pregancy pretty much was non-existant. Only my youngest has a peanut and milk allergy--though it seems the only reaction he has had is a rash though not taking chances with the peanut thing.

I ate at LEAST one peanut butter and jelly sandwhich every single day when I was pregnant with my first son. It was my "thing." I couldn't stop eating them!
My boy does not have allergies to any foods.

I don't remember if I ate PB or not. If I did, it wasn't too often. I also didn't eat nuts too often as I didn't like them very much back then. My son (17) has a peanut (but NOT tree nut) allergy and my youngest daughter (12) has a tree nut (but NOT peanut) allergy. I never thought about actively preventing allergies. I had no idea allergies would be such an issue when I was last pregnant 13 years ago.

Nobody in *my* family in my generation and up (parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc) has food allergies (my husband DOES). So far, almost every child born in the next generation (my kids, my sister's daughter, my cousins' kids) has allergies to peanuts, tree nuts or both or other foods. There are just a TON of food allergies in the next generation of my family. My middle daughter is the only one that has no allergies.

I don't know what you can do to prevent allergies. I read somewhere that if one parent has allergies, there's like a 50% chance the kid will be allergic to something. If BOTH parents have allergies, that percentage goes way up to 90% or something like that. It was in some article I read YEARS ago and I remember thinking "well, my kids are screwed" since my husband and I both have allergies (me to cats and a particular medication, him to some foods).

It's true, nut allergies ARE no joke. If you find a method that might work to prevent them, I'd say do it.

I think your fetus will let you know what it likes and doesn't like.

One of my friends craved avocados like crazy her whole pregnancy with her son. When he was born and then later on when he started eating food he loved avocados. He couldn't get enough.

When she was pregnant with her daughter she'd get sick on any dairy product. When her daughter was born she was lactose intolerant and had to have soy formula.

So the baby will let you know what it likes and doesn't like.

Probably not. I am fairly sure the last time I had peanut butter in the house prior to having a child was when I was a child. I am fairly sure I ate other nuts - no nut allergies.

The lunch meat recommendation is a serious one. Listeria is nothing to sneeze at unless a miscarriage wouldn't bother you.

The sushi recommendation is not based upon much - just the idea that if you got sick from eating sushi (has never happened to me) that being dehydrated would be bad for the fetus.

I ate a LOT of peanut butter and peanuts when I was pregnant. The only downside was that for some reason peanuts gave me really bad gas throughout my pregnancy. LOL! My daughter has no peanut allergies. She eats peanut butter like her life depends on it!