Responding to Pat Gima's well-taken point about mothers not consuming
things to which they know they are allergic or sensitive:  a mom who
is NOT nut-sensitive may carry & nurse a child who IS, if the child
inherits this from the father.  The father may not know or remember
that he had nut sensitivities, since outgrown, as a child.  (Let's
hope the father knows if he is *currently* allergic to nuts!)

This happened to me with my firstborn so it's not just hypothetical
for me.  :-)  I am not nut-sensitive.  My husband was nut-sensitive
as a child but has long been able to eat all kinds of nuts and
peanuts in moderation.  Our son landed in the hospital emergency room
at 9 months of age suffering an anaphylactic reaction after ingesting
pecan proteins via my breastmilk.  Later, at 3+ yrs of age (with that
many years of breastfeeding under his belt), he passed food-challenge
tests with flying colors, coming up *negative* for all nut and peanut
allergies.  He could very well grow up to father a child without
remembering that he was severely nut-allergic as a baby.

Also, there are surely many cases of peanut or nut allergy in
children who have non-allergic parents.  Something has to be
happening to result in the reported increase in peanut allergies.
Considering that nut-sensitive parents are likely to avoid nuts, and
are probably procreating at about the same rate as the rest of us
anyway, the increase must be coming from some other population.

Wishing I could eat nuts now as I gestate my second child, and
thankful for the wonderful properties of mother's milk,

Margaret
LLLL
Longmont, CO

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