How to Prevent Your Baby from Developing Allergies During Pregnancy
You’re thinking – WHAT?
I’ve never heard of such a thing. How can you prevent baby allergies? And before the baby is even born?
Aren’t allergies something that just HAPPENS?
Good question! That’s what I used to think. But after I read Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s book – The GAPS Diet, I’ve come to a very different conclusion.
She explains that the source of all food allergies is a lack of good gut flora.
That healthy bacteria that lives in your intestines? You know the ones you take probiotics for? That’s what we call gut flora.
So, this gut flora inhabits our intestines and helps with the digestive system (and also prevents bad bacteria from taking over).
If a person doesn’t have good gut flora, the digestive system could be compromised.
What does that look like?
It looks like particles of not fully digested food going into the bloodstream and being attacked by white blood cells thinking the food is ‘the enemy’, and then permanently calling it ‘the enemy’.
AKA – your body is calling your food the enemy – which is what we call an ALLERGY.
Got that? If we don’t have enough good gut flora, it causes allergies. But how does that relate to pregnancy? Aren’t babies sterile in utero? Meaning they don’t have any gut flora?
Related: 6 Must Dos if You Think Your Child has a Food Allergy
So how will my baby develop good gut flora during pregnancy?
Another good question! Or rather I should answer with another question: how does a baby get his gut flora?
Where does it come from?
A baby gets introduced to gut flora – or healthy bacteria that lives in the intestines – during birth. While she’s going through the mother’s birth canal, she picks up her mother’s flora.
That would mean that if the mother has good flora, then the baby will also come to get good flora.
Then when she’s being nursed over the next year, the flora also passes through the mother’s milk to the baby. That’s how a baby develop gut flora.
Few questions here:
What happens to a baby whose mother doesn’t have good gut flora?
What happens to a baby born by caesarian?
What happens to a baby who is bottle fed?
That’s exactly the problem. If you – the mother – don’t have good gut flora, then your child is going to start out at a disadvantage.
And if your baby wasn’t born vaginally then you’ve got a double disadvantage.
And – yes you guessed it – if you are bottle feeding you’ve got a triple disadvantage.
That’s why you always hear people say that nursing is so healthy for the baby. Not just because the milk itself is so custom made for the baby, but also because of the healthy gut flora that baby is getting.
Further – a little more about gut flora. Your body also has some ‘bad bacteria’ floating around, which serves a purpose, but should be in small amounts or it will take over and kill off the good gut flora. So you would never want to do something to make the ‘bad bacteria’ grow in huge proportions.
The problem is there are certain foods that ‘feed’ this ‘bad bacteria’ and make it grow. Some of us like those foods. Those foods are: white flour, lactose containing dairy and sugar.
Bummer…. those are my favorite foods.
Pizza, lasagna, noodles and cheese, bread, cookies, cake, milk, candy, ice cream…. The list goes on.
No kidding, they’re the whole culture’s favorite foods! No wonder the world has gone crazy with allergies!
Now, how do I help my poor unborn child stay clear of all these allergies?
What I’m going to suggest is the following:
1. Take a Good Quality Probiotic
Good quality means the company produces good quality live and active probiotic that will not get damaged in storage or by the stomach acids on the way down to the intestines.
Good quality also means that you need to have a variety of strains of probiotics. Not only acidophilus, for example. Each different strain serves a purpose in the body, and they are all needed. The more strains the better.
You want to take a probiotic every day, orally.
In addition to that, during the last two months of pregnancy, you’ll also want to take a probiotic capsule and put it up in the birth canal (like a tampon) about twice a week. That’s going to help you have lots of healthy flora for your baby’s arrival.
This is the probiotic that I use which is highly recommended by the GAPS Diet: Bio-Kult Advanced Probiotic Multi-Strain Formula Capsules
Continue taking your probiotics orally - daily - while nursing so your baby will continue to cultivate good gut flora as she grows. You can also keep up the probiotics even after nursing because it’s good for YOU.
If your baby was born via caesarian, be aware that you’ve got to be really on top of taking your probiotics while you nurse.
You can continue to give your baby (and kids) probiotics in their cereal or applesauce and mixed in with any food that is room temperature or slightly warm (not hot – but I don’t think you would feed hot food to your baby!)
If your baby is bottle fed, then you can actually open up a capsule of probiotics and put in a little bit into the formula! Be aware that infants need a very small dose of probiotics. You don’t want to overwhelm their system.
Check with your local alternative practitioner to find the right dosage for your children at every age. To make an appointment with me for a Body Code Session go here.
I personally open a capsule and give my 5-year-old the larger side of the capsule and the 3-year-old the smaller side of the capsule. (I’ve gotten my kids used to their nightly probiotics so they’ll actually take it straight on their tongue!)
Whichever way you do it, keep it up!
Probiotics are essential for our bodies and missing them shows up in many ways. Including developing allergies!
2. Eat a More Balanced Diet
You’ll want to cut down on the white flour, lactose containing dairy and sugar.
These are the foods that feed bad bacteria, which fight the good gut flora. They are also the foods that little kids love. So, make sure to start out on the right foot.
When your baby grows into a bigger baby and into a toddler get her used to proteins, fruits & veggies, nuts and whole grain sugar free foods.
I hear you that this is a big change in your diet. Trust me, I know. I myself made a big change in my life when I discovered the GAPS Diet.
Related: 6 Tips for Getting Your Picky Eater Eating Real Food
This is a dietary change that is highly recommended during pregnancy, but you’ll also want to keep it up after pregnancy and incorporate this dietary style for your family in general.
Overall better health for everyone all-round.
3. Learn More
If you’d like to learn more, read The GAPS Diet book.
It’s fascinating. I learned a lot, not only about health and allergies, but also about mental health, learning disabilities, ADHD and even the Autistic Spectrum.
The roots are all in the gut flora.
We all want to raise healthy and happy kids, right? Trust me, I know, it’s hard raising kids with allergies. They can’t have what everyone else can and it’s hard to cook for them. If you’re going through that, I can relate.
Related: What’s for Dinner tonight: Kids with Allergies.
Related: How the Body Code Cured my Insomnia & Asthma
Aside from avoiding baby allergies, an awesome benefit to healthy gut flora is that your kids will get sick less often.
Probiotics strengthen the intestines, so when a bad bacteria or virus come through, the intestines are strong enough to just sweep them past and expel the virus or bad bacteria out.
All in all, probiotics are the KEY to intestinal health and that means free from allergies.
How do you serve your kids their probiotics?