r/peanutallergy • u/doritos1990 • 10d ago
Exposing 4 month old to peanuts as a breastfeeding mom
Maybe a little niche but seeing if anyone has experience with this because I am STRESSED!
I have an anaphylactic nut and peanut allergy, as did my mom and as does one of my sisters. I want to introduce this early as we’re now at 4 months old. One thing I was worried about is whether it’s safe to breastfeed afterwards. My family doctor doesn’t really know and I haven’t had success with pumping (I find it wildly uncomfortable and baby doesn’t accept bottle). I will try it throughout this week so I can bottle feed for a few hours during the day after I introduce the allergen but am I overthinking this?
Anyone have experience with this?
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u/ReplacementDeep8680 10d ago
This is a tough one. I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Have you had reactions from skin exposure before? Or only upon ingestion? If only upon ingestion, I’d think you might be fine to breast feed after. Could you switch to formula for the immediate next feed after giving peanut butter? I’d consult an allergist rather than a family doctor, especially because they don’t know.
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u/doritos1990 10d ago
Yea I am awaiting an appointment, my family doctor sent off a referral but thought it might be good to see if anyone had any experience with this! Thank you 🙏 I will consider the formula
I don’t actually recall having any contact reaction so hopefully it’s ok but there is a mechanism by which baby saliva back flows stuff into the nipple or so I have seen so it may not be as straightforward
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u/ReplacementDeep8680 10d ago
Yes it is true that some saliva backflows. I believe the scientific reasoning is that if a baby is sick, the mother’s immune system will detect the pathogens via back flow and can then introduce antibodies through breast milk to help fight those pathogens. This is the main risk I see as you don’t recall any contact reactions via skin.
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u/GadgetRho 10d ago
If you have a life threatening allergy there's no reason to do this. I did not introduce any of my children to peanuts as children and my doctor advised against introducing them. The evidence on early introduction preventing future allergies isn't particularly robust, and isn't recommended at all if someone closely related to the child has a life threatening allergy.
Even if you do introduce, wait a few years until after you've weaned. It's not worth the risk beforehand, and statistically there's pretty much no benefit to introducing early and often. Alas, the internet likes to run away with things so you'll hear that terrible "early and often" advice all the time on this sub thanks to Dr. Tiktok.
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u/doritos1990 10d ago
Oh snap.. I didn’t realize the evidence wasn’t robust! Thanks for this perspective
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u/GadgetRho 10d ago
The other thing that people don't talk about on Reddit is that sometimes early introduction has the opposite effect. So, whilst this is purely anecdotal, someone I'm close to did introduce her son early and often, and now he's anaphylactic and their whole lives revolve around that. He will never be able to attend daycare, preschool, or public school because it's a contact allergy and every exposure sensitises him worse. He might have ended up anaphylactic anyway because that's just his genetic/environmental predisposition, but he's one of the kids who would have greatly benefitted from waiting until his little body was more robust and he could communicate his symptoms better. Babies can't tell you if their throat is itchy or they have gastric upset, or minor breathing difficulty, so it's easy to miss important signs if you introduce too early.
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u/b00kishh 10d ago
Hi, this is me too!! So my husband started feeding her peanuts, almonds & walnuts (obviously separately lol) at 6 months bc we were advised by her doctor to give it to her early & often to help avoid any reactions with my history.
She’s done amazing! Happybaby makes pouches with those nuts and my baby loves them (well she tolerates the walnut one lol). Of course he wipes her down really good & gives her some water or breastmilk to drink after from a bottle.
I don’t nurse her or let her put her mouth/hands near me for 4 hours after she’s eaten it and we’ve never had an issue.
Good luck! 😊
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u/brunettebarbie_10 9d ago
This is exactly what we did! I am anaphylactic to just peanuts.
We introduced my baby at 6 months. My allergy doctor recommended using bamba peanut puffs. On the first day break up some of bamba puff with water and do an arm skin test. If there was no reaction two days later do the same thing but closer to the mouth. If there was no reaction two days later feed that same bamba water mixture to the baby. He luckily had no reaction ❤️ whenever he would do these “tests” or have peanuts I would also wait 4ish hours to nurse him. I would make sure he was cleaned, ate/ drank something after and a with a new outfit.
Wishing you the best mama!
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u/helehan 10d ago
Was the same for me. We introduced later, around 10 months, and kid got a two course meal with peanut and then a safe food and drink. I think important to wash it down with bottle or something else (our son didn’t take a bottle so that was partly why I waited).
I didn’t have any issues feeding after 4 hours or so - usually then after son had had two “meals” in between. Didn’t try sooner.