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Mothers who do not eat peanuts during pregnancy could leave their child susceptible to allergies, a report has warned.
It suggests that Britain's allergy epidemic is being fuelled by Government advice to mothers not to eat peanuts during pregnancy and to avoid giving them to children at an early age.

Nutty question: to eat or not to eatThe dramatic findings follow a series of studies which found that allergy rates are low, or non-existent, in countries where babies are weaned on peanuts.

In contrast, Britain has witnessed a surge in childhood allergies in the last decade, with up to 8% of youngsters experiencing a reaction before they go to school.

The House of Lords' science and technology committee is expected to call on the Department of Health to change its official advice.

Ministers have admitted that their guidelines - which state that babies may be at higher risk of developing a nut allergy if the mother or father have a history of asthma, eczema or hay fever - may be 'entirely wrong and counter-productive.'

The advice says: 'If your baby is in this higher-risk group, you may wish to avoid eating peanuts and peanut products when you're pregnant and breast-feeding.'

The crossbench peer Lord May of Oxford said: "It is quite striking that the increase in peanut allergies is rather in step with the increasing Government advice not to expose tiny children to them."

Ministers could change the advice within weeks.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91168-1285008,00.html