Babies, Allergies, and Morning Sickness

[Astromom]

OK, so ChangingSeason's poll has me wondering more. Why does one of my kids have a lot of allergies/intolerances while the other only has a couple intolerances? No antibiotics, no c-sections, no vax, etc with either of them... so what was it? Genetics I assume, but I'm wondering if there was a trigger. The one difference between them was how I ate during pregnancy. I was very sick while pregnant with them both, but I ate very little while pregnant with my daughter and I forced myself to eat while pregnant with my son. Another difference was that I was only sick until 12 weeks with DD but was sick almost the whole pregnancy with DS (until the end, when I felt ok if I ate cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. Which of course he is allergic to ). So I can't really make a poll with all the questions I really want to do, so I will just try these:

I had morning sickness, I didn't eat much, and that baby had allergies
I had morning sickness, I didn't eat much, and that baby didn't have allergies
I had morning sickness, I ate a normal amount, and that baby had allergies
I had morning sickness, I ate a normal amount, and that baby didn't have allergies
I had no morning sickness and that baby had allergies
I had no morning sickness and that baby didn't have allergies

I'm going to make it multiple choice so you can answer for all your children. Oh and when I say "allergies" I mean any intolerances/allergies/etc to food. It's really late and I'm exhausted and I hope the poll makes sense.

[changingseasons]

Another interesting topic!!

I had no morning sickness, but I did crave & eat a TON of what DD is now allergic too later in my pregnancy (well, dairy & almonds, so 2 out of her billion allergies.) But far more interesting is that I also tested positive to those things, and I have never had food issues before as far as I know. Dairy, eggs, and almonds were my all time favorite snacks... and now I can't eat any of them. (But I also think that the abx that I had during pregnancy, twice, did a number on my gut which started the whole thing...)

[kjbrown92]

This is actually very interesting. With DD#1, I vomited copiously for the first 4 months. Of course, I also craved totally non-nutritious frozen Mama Celeste pizzas (cooked). The only thing that I could tolerate well those first 4 months was yogurt, even though I'd never eaten yogurt before. She did not have any food intolerances. Gained 35 pounds.

With DS, I was nauseated for the first 4 months, but I only threw up once. I thought it was because I had learned what to do (eat many small meals, eat crackers before I got up in the morning, etc.). He came out intolerant to milk and soy. Gained 40 pounds

With DD#2, I was also nauseated the first 4 months and threw up once. She was fine with my breastmilk, then reacted to foods when I started on solids. Gained 25 pounds. And she was a c-section.

With the first two, I had lots of ice cream during the last few months of pregnancy, and didn't want ice cream at all with DD#2.

What does any of it mean? I have no idea. Of course, the people who read this forum are all allergy/intolerance people. You'd have to poll everybody to get meaningful results. But it is interesting (as in you throw up foods to get them out of your body because they're bad for the baby).

[elmh23]

With dd, I had no morning sickness and she has allergies to peanuts, soy and antibiotics. I craved PB&J though and she was allergic to peanuts, so I've always wondered if that was part of it.

With ds, I had a little morning sickness but ate a normal amount and he is allergic to peanuts, soy and juniper trees. I didn't eat any PB&J while pregnant with him (even though I craved it) so I think a lot of our stuff is genetic (both families have enviormental allergies.)

[Hey Mama!]

I had hyper emesis with all three pregnancies, but only my oldest had food issues. Her main one is milk, and I could not tolerate milk products at all during my pregnancy with her, so she was telling me before she was even born that she had a problem with milk.

[nalo]

I had morning sickness for a few weeks only but never vomitted - just felt VERY nauseous and had a very overactive gag reflex. I ate a fairly normal amount but the type of food I could stomach was pretty limited. I never had any cravings during pregnancy. I am certain that my DD's dairy issue stemmed from a dairy bender I went on that must have damaged my gut (plus I had 1 round of abx during labor) and I didn't realize it and continued eating all my normal foods for a bit. She is not an overly sensitive kid and I feel in my gut (no pun intended ) she'll ultimately be fine with all foods. I'm just being really cautious right now.

[zjandosmom]

Well, ds3 is the only with a milk/soy allergy and my preg with him was awful. All other pg were great. I gained a lot more weight with him, had a yeast infection the ENTIRE pg and generally felt yuck. I really wished I had 'listened' to my body then and figured out why I felt so bad...could have been a reaction to dairy? When he was born his cord was double wrapped and so tight the mw had to cut in just to allow him to finish coming out. He then had to go to the NICU for 12 hours as they thought he was having breathing issues and gave him horrible antibiotics....he didn't need them. When his teeth came in they came in without enamel.....antibiotics at birth - problems with my diet when pg? I wonder.....

[LauraLoo]

I had no morning sickness with either dc -- one has severe food allergies and environmental allergies, and the other child has no allergies whatsoever.

[Astromom]

Thank you to everyone who has told about your experiences! Now I have to think about what the poll results mean if anything..

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

What does any of it mean? I have no idea. Of course, the people who read this forum are all allergy/intolerance people. You'd have to poll everybody to get meaningful results. But it is interesting (as in you throw up foods to get them out of your body because they're bad for the baby).

Yes, I need to think about it a bit more but I was really just interested in hearing experiences from the allergic families at this point... I threw the "no allergy" options in there since I know so many of us have allergic and non-allergic children in the same family. But right, I am wondering if my body both times was telling me not to eat stuff because it was going to screw up my kid. And the first time I listened to it and DD is fine, but with DS I was too afraid of losing that much weight so I forced the issue even though it made me terribly miserable. I don't know..

And there is the issue about WHAT we eat during pregnancy that I'm wondering if that is playing a part in our kids' allergies too.. a lot of us have mentioned eating a lot of something and then having a child with an allergy to it. I wanted to incorporate that into the poll too but then I was ending up with this crazy monster poll with too many choices.. LOL..

[Alyantavid]

Huh.

With my first I had no morning sickness, ate really well throughout and he has a sensitivity to dairy.

With my youngest, I did have severe morning sickness, then ate tons of whatever sounded good (and gained a hefty amount of weight) and he has a serious dairy allergy.