Possibilities of antenatal prevention of food allergy in young children

Abstract

Objective: to determine the efficiency of antenatal prevention of food allergy in children. A total of 248 mother-child pairs were followed up. According to their maternal feeding pattern during pregnancy, the newborn infants were divided into 3 subgroups. Subgroup 1 consisted of 37 infants whose mothers had ingested a hypoallergenic diet during pregnancy. Subgroup 2 entered 29 babies, whose mothers had adhered to a hypoallergenic diet and received the probiotic Lactobacillus reuteri Protectis in the last stages of gestation. Subgroup 3 comprised 82 infants whose mothers had received a diet with a hypoallergenic substitute of cow’s milk for the New Zealand goat’s milk Amalthea in combination with the probiotic during pregnancy. There were no differences between the neonatal groups in anthropometric indicators. Analysis of intestinal microbiota showed that significantly more children had an increasing amount of Klebsiella, enterococci, Candida albicans, and Staphylococcus aureus in the comparison group (p<0.05). Subgroup 3 babies whose mother had received lactobacilli and the whole goat’s milk Amalthea were more frequently found to have normal levels of bifidobacteria and lactobacilli (p<0.05) and a smaller number of opportunistic pathogens (p<0.05) in the enteric flora. In addition, the hypoallergenic diet including goat’s milk and/or Lactobacillus reuteri Pro￾tectis in mothers in the last stages of gestation reduced the frequency and degree of sensitization to cow’s and goat’s milk in the infants.