During the the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in Dallas earlier this month, Dr. Robert Wood, international health director for pediatric allergy and immunology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, offered these recommendations for mothers of children at high risk of developing allergies:

• Women should avoid peanuts and tree nuts during pregnancy and while breast-feeding.
• Mothers should supplement breast-feeding with a hypoallergenic formula (extensively or partially hydrolyzed).
• Delay feeding these children solid foods until they're six months old.
• Delay introduction of milk and egg until age 1 and peanut and tree nuts until age 3.
• Start early intervention when signs of food allergy appear (secondary prevention).

This article also presented new findings form other studies on food allergies:

• A study on edible nuts found cross-reactivity was strong among walnut, pecan and hazelnut; moderate among cashew, pistachio, Brazil nut and almond; and extremely low between peanut and tree nuts.
• Dr. Sami Bahna, chief of allergy and immunology at Louisiana State University has been quoted saying "You may be allergic to a particular part of a food, but not to another part."
• Another expert also said that doctors need to consider food allergy as a potential cause of gastrointestinal or dermatological symptoms in patients.

. Read the full article from MedicineNet.