Where We Predestined to Have a Food Allergic Child?

I have been given a lot of information lately on risk factors for having a food allergic child. If these risk factors are to be believed, my husband and I hit nearly everyone.

Let me start by saying that no one can predict if your child will have a food allergy and what it might be. We are simply discussing what people have considered to be risks for the possibility of having a child with a food allergy.

Immediate Parent with Allergy

This is not limited to food allergies. Lets say both parents have seasonal allergies, this increases your risk. To have a parent with a food allergy increases your risk. To have a history of food allergies in the family further increases your risk.

My Husband and I both suffer for environmental allergies, his mother has a food allergy to fish, I have a food allergy and intolerance, my mother and grandmother both have food allergies.

Urban Areas

Higher concentrations of food allergic children are found in more urban areas, such as larger cities. If you choose to believe because of water and air quality, or it could simply be that there are more people.

My Husband and I were both born and raised just out side of Chicago, IL, we drank the water and breathed the air for the majority of our lives.

Medications

The overuse of antibiotics has been blamed for contributing to the increase of food allergies, as well as the use of other medications. It has been suggested that the manipulation of hormones for IVF or other infertility treatments can lead to in increase in the risk of food allergies.

Our daughter was conserved only after sever attempts of IVF. I required on going medications and antibiotics while I was pregnant.

Breastfeeding

Most doctors agree that breastfeeding is beneficial to infants, but they disagree on the length of time. Some say a year while others say that 4 months is just fine. Some recommend changing the mothers diet to not include common food allergens such as nuts and fish. Others say that changing the diet does not matter because food allergens crossing over is very rare.

I breastfeed for three months and she very obviously responded to allergens present in my breast milk.

So is the message here that food allergies can be inherited, due to environment, or just random chance? Doctors and scientist can not agree and they will tell you that some data shows these correlations are very clear while other say its all over the place.