Preventing Allergies

The best allergy prevention is avoidance! Avoid your allergy triggers! Once you have identified the allergens that trigger your allergic reactions, avoid them!

Other alternatives for allergy prevention may even start when a baby is still in the womb! There is evidence that mothers who avoid foods such as nuts during their pregnancy may prevent allergy related conditions in their children. Further, mothers should avoid foods such as cow’s milk, eggs, and nuts (especially peanuts) while breastfeeding. This, too, can prevent allergy related conditions, such as eczema, in some children. Some studies have shown that children who have been breastfed are less likely to have allergies.

To prevent future allergy related problems in your children, you should discuss your child’s family history of allergies, eczema, etc. Discuss the implications of your child’s current diet on the development of future allergic conditions. Sometimes, even timing the introduction of solid foods in general, and of several specific foods, can help prevent some allergies.

There is a medical theory called the hygiene hypothesis, which states that a lack of early childhood exposure to infectious agents, symbiotic microorganisms, symbiotic bacteria and parasites increases susceptibility to allergic diseases by affecting immune system development. This means that, if the theory is correct, that children exposed to certain airborne allergens such as animal dander and/or dust mites may be less likely to develop related allergies in the future.

Once allergies have developed, however, treating the allergies in accordance with your personalized treatment developed by you and your doctor, as well as carefully avoiding the allergens that cause allergic reactions in your body is the best way you can prevent allergic reactions in the future.