Are Food Allergies Hereditary?

Candyshel13

 A little background:  I was not diagnosed with food allergies until I was 24.  I had constant ear infections my entire life and the doctors could never understand why.  I had several ear sugeries to try to fix the problem, but nothing seem to work.  My doctor went out on a limb, and had allergy testing done.  The test came back with a pretty severe allergy to dairy, beef, and yeast.  After elliminating these things from my diet, I have been ear infection free for most of the time.  Of course, if I am sick with something else the ear infection comes back, but goes away fairly fast. 

Now my question:  I am 7 months pregnant with my first child.  My OB has said that it is unlikely that my food allergies will effect my child, but I still have my doubts.  Does anyone have a situation where you the mother or the father have had the food allergy and your child/children do not?  TIA

monkeyqueen

I didn't develop food allergies (mango and beans) until I was 20.   Heck, I was raised on weiners and beans:)

Now......two of my children do not have allergies of any sort and my middle daughter may have an allergy to peanuts (we have not had her tested, yet - but, she reacted to peanuts).   

Discordia1030

My mother has food allergies, I do not, yet DS does. On DHs side, his grandfather has food allergies, MIL does not and DH does. 

loveemandle2

I am not sure.. both my kids have FA, and none one else in our family does.  No history whatever.  Our allergist says there is something about mine and dh's genes when they get together make it right the combonation for FA in our kids (I think I explained that right, lol).  So, anways.. I don't think there is any reason to be worried in your case.  However, as you start to find kids new foods, I think it is always a good idea to keep benadryl in the house, for the just in case!

ABColeslaw

It depends.  What research tells us is that children who are born to allergic parents are more likely to have food allergies themselves, but not necessarily the same allergies. 

It also depends on the nature of the allergy.  My Husband has a Primary Immuno Deficiency Disorder simular to EOE that manifests as a severe multiple protein allerdy, my son has the same exact disorder.  So I would say yes in our case it is hereditary.  I've even been told that if I were to have another child, that we would be playing it safe and that baby would skip breast milk or reg formula and go right onto medical ammino formula so we don't trigger the condition with a weak immune system. 

Court0026

There are no food allergies in either of our families and DS has allergies.  I am, however, intolerant to soy and milk protein, and sensitive to gluten.  

sophie888

As our allergist put it to us, a parent with ANY kind of allergy is predisposed to have a child that develops an allergy, whether that be seasonal, environmental or food.  My mother had terrible seasonal allergies, my husband is allergic to everything(cats, dogs,  pollen, etc.) and my DS ended up with food allergies.  I on the other hand am allergy free. 

twoasone1

My DS has EoE.  It is hereditary.  We think my DH has a very mild case of it.  With my current pregnancy if it is a boy, we were told he would have a 60% chance of having the same disorder.  If it is a girl, it is a slightly lower chance. 

ohioroots

I actually just did a paper on allergies for a college class I'm taking, and after reading dozens of articles, it sounds like different allergies are caused by different things. There are some that are genetic mutations as some PP's said. They are also doing studies to determine whether they should give pregnant women certain vitamin/lipid combos, or certain probiotics. They are trying to find out if the mother getting sick while pregnant has a positive or negative effect on the immune system of the fetus. A lot of questions still are unanswered, unfortumately.

magdusia

I know someone who has food allergies and their child does not.  My DH and I do not and never have had allergies and my son has severe food allergies.  I think the chances do go up a bit but not too much.

Either way, at least you are prepared and know what signs to look for. 

heyitsme

Candyshel13:

Now my question:  I am 7 months pregnant with my first child.  My OB has said that it is unlikely that my food allergies will effect my child, but I still have my doubts.  Does anyone have a situation where you the mother or the father have had the food allergy and your child/children do not?  TIA

I have severe multiple food allergies (peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, seafood, wheat, eggs, milk, soy, green beans).

I breastfed my daughter for the first 13.5 months of her life. (Although I will tell you at that time I didn't have my dairy, wheat, or egg allergies.) We delayed introducing peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, and seafood until she was at least 2. We did these 2 things based on a recommendation from my allergies (breastfeeding CAN lessen the possibility of allergies, but not always--read up on "leaky gut syndrome" and why sometimes BFing can help with allergy prevention). DD is almost 7 and has no known food allergies.

As for DS, I breastfed him for 6 months. Now we've transitioned to formula (on my more restricted diet I wasn't taking in enough calories, as hard as I tried, to produce enough milk) and there's a possibility of allergies, although I will admit I have my doubts (I don't think he's allergic--we're in the process of trying hypoallergenic formula, though, and moving on to testing).

So I guess what I'm saying is it's a crapshoot. Your children do have an increased risk of food allergies because you have them. But it doesn't mean they'll develop food allergies, or that they'll be allergic to the same things as you, either. 

macchiatto

sophie888:

As our allergist put it to us, a parent with ANY kind of allergy is predisposed to have a child that develops an allergy, whether that be seasonal, environmental or food.  My mother had terrible seasonal allergies, my husband is allergic to everything(cats, dogs,  pollen, etc.) and my DS ended up with food allergies.  I on the other hand am allergy free. 

This. The "atopic triad"--eczema, asthma and allergies--are related and having one or any of those three can have a genetic link. My only allergy is cats and I've never had asthma or allergies; DH isn't allergic to anything. But both our brothers have the whole atopic triad (and there are a lot of allergies in my family in general) and both our boys have had eczema, food allergies and environmental allergies.