Study: Connection Between Mom’s Diet and Infant Allergies

What you eat while pregnant may effect the allergies your child has, according to researchers in Japan. Specifically, eating plenty of vegetables and fruits during pregnancy may lower the chance of having a baby with certain allergies:

- Eating lots of green and yellow vegetables, citrus fruit, and both vegetables and fruits high in beta carotene could reduce the risk of having a baby with eczema.

- Eating foods high in vitamin E — like broccoli, spinach, kiwi and mango — could may lessen the risk of having a wheezy, asthmatic infant.

According Dr. Yoshihiro Miyake of Fukuoka University, the research is “still developing” but that in their study of about 750 women — after allowing for other eczema risk factor — eczema was more common among infants of moms who ate the least versus the most green and yellow vegetables.

Boosting intake of green and yellow vegetables, citrus fruits, and antioxidants such as beta-carotene and vitamin E among moms-to-be “deserves further investigation as measures that would possibly be effective in the prevention of allergic disorders in the offspring,” the researchers concluded.