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Allergies can deeply affect a child's life.
By D. Begg — Written on Mar 28, 2018
The chances of kids developing food allergies and eczema cannot be ignored.
According to a study, around 8 percent of kids in the United States are affected by food allergies. This percentage is expected to further increase in the near future.
There are around eight foods that account for 90 percent of all food-allergic reactions — peanut, milk, egg, tree nuts, fish, all forms of seafood, and shellfish.
Is there a chance to prevent food allergies or reduce the risk of allergies in kids during a mother's pregnancy? Yes. And the answer is a healthy diet. We will discuss the new findings from the recent study in this article.
Probiotics And Fish Oil In Pregnancy
There was a study conducted to find out the impact of pregnancy diet and the risk of childhood allergies. The findings from the study were mostly positive. It was found that the inclusion of probiotics and fish oil in the pregnancy diet and breastfeeding can help in reducing the risk of food allergies and eczema in children.
The researchers did a careful study of more than hundreds of previous studies during the process of this study. The researchers concluded that regular consumption of fish oil may reduce the egg allergy by 30 percent in a child under age one.
The fish oil is well known for its richness in omega-3 fatty acid, which is a special kind of fat. It also has anti-inflammatory properties. The researchers explained that more extensive trial might be needed for more substantial evidence, but they have confirmed that the pregnancy diet plays a vital role in influencing the childhood allergy.
The allergies are the results of the immune system malfunction and hyper-reaction to the foods that are not dangerous in nature. These allergies can trigger symptoms like wheezing, rashes, vomiting, and swelling.
Dr. Robert Boyle, who is the lead author of this study and researcher at the Imperial College London, said that the findings of the study should be considered while designing the guidelines for pregnancy diet. He further suggested that this finding should be used for updating pregnancy diet guidelines.
Fish oil supplement can provide omega-3 fatty acids to pregnant women. However, there is a limit to the dosage of fish oil. It is recommended that women should only consume two portions of fish oil every week due to the availability of mercury in some fish. And, it is also recommended that pregnant women avoid marlin, shark, and swordfish.
To go further with this study, the researchers sampled 19 trials of various supplements that are taken during the pregnancy of these women, which included 15,000 people. After the sampling, the researchers found 31 fewer cases of childhood allergy per 1,000 kids.
The impacts of probiotics supplements that were consumed during pregnancy were also carefully studied by the researchers in this study. The researchers found that there is 22% reduced the risk of developing eczema in kids who were below three years old.
However, the study published in the PLOS Medicine Journal found that the intake of vegetables, fruits, vitamins, nuts, eggs, and dairy products have no impact on determining the risk of allergy.
According to Seif Shaheen, who is the professor at Queen Mary University, London, said that the definite answers to the role of fish oil and probiotics in the reduction of the risk of childhood allergy and eczema could only be found when the research is carried out in the larger scale.
However, she believed that these findings added to the growing evidence of how pregnancy diet is essential for preventing childhood allergy.
She said that these significant trials will help the specific subgroups of mothers and children regarding this issue.
Dr. Lousia James, who belongs to the British Society of Immunology, said that there are still many questions on this subject matter. She told that there are still confusions on how the consumption of fish oil and probiotics can impact other severe food allergies, not only allergies associated with eggs.
She said that only egg allergy was taken into consideration during this research as the representative of food allergies as a whole. She added that it was important to find out whether the consumption of fish oil can help in reducing clinical food allergies as a whole or not.
A lot has been said about healthy pregnancy diet and pregnancy exercises. It’s because the diet chosen by a mother affects not only her health but also the health of her baby.
Adding fish oil and probiotics is even more recommended after the findings from this study. It is also recommended that you follow other healthy pregnancy tips.
There could be even more studies conducted on this topic, as it has always been a challenge for medical professionals to deal with childhood allergies.
Donna Begg is an expert editor, a mentor, analyst, and a researcher.