Heredity is one of the major factors in determining whether a child has an allergy. Tendency of a child towards allergy could be while being breastfed, during the mother’s pregnancy and while being introduced to foods. One can find out how allergies may be the cause of a child’s health problems.

Preventive measures during pregnancy:

Breastfeeding - Feeding babies with solid foods during their first six months of life could increase their risk of developing allergies. is The best way to prevent allergies later in childhood is to breastfeed them during the first six months.

Avoid unnecessary medicines - Unless and until it is absolutely necessary, a pregnant women should not risk taking any allergy medications. DO not take anything without your doctor’s permission.

Avoid herbs during pregnancy - Pregnant must avoid several herbs as they tend to cause skin allergies.

Special Formula May Reduce Allergies in Infants - By means of some of the same ingredients that are found in breast milk scientists have developed a new formula. This formula helps in preventing allergies in infants. The infants who are at high risk for developing the allergic condition are helped through this formula by reducing their eczema.

Over breastfeeding invite allergies:

A study on 200 mothers for a period of 20-years at the Helsinki Skin and Allergy Hospital in Finland, indicates that breastfeeding a child for nine months can increase the food sensitivity and the risk of allergies.

Peanuts during pregnancy - Peanuts are believed to cause allergies. They are avoided during pregnancy and lactation.

Avoid tobacco - Avoid tobacco and its products at the time of pregnancy.

Physical Exercise - Consult your doctor whether its OK to do some mild exercise as it has been observed that exercise at the later part of pregnancy can cause allergic reactions.

We hope you will find this information helpful. Needless to say, always consult your doctor before following these advices.

Moving through pregnancy often raises some tricky questions. In fact, sometimes there just seem to be too many. There are often some common questions like - do you gain weight the first trimester of pregnancy and similar questions. What can I say - read on and we’ll try and help you with this one.

Recapping; Do you gain weight the first trimester of pregnancy? Is a common question among expecting mothers so we thought we could offer some insight on this.

When you are pregnant, you have to be careful with a lot of details if you want to have a healthy baby (and of course you want this!). One of this is the weight you have to gain during pregnancy. If you are an expecting mother, you probably know that an adult normal-weight woman must gain something between 25 and 35 pounds, by the ninth month. You must also know that you have to gain weight mainly in the second and in the third trimester, but many of you ask yourselves: do you gain weight the first trimester of pregnancy?

The first trimester is the beginning of this important journey that is pregnancy. Even if it won’t get obvious that you are carrying a baby from the outside, you will feel different and you will notice many changes in your body. These include breast changes, you will urinate more often, you may be much more tired than usual, and you may have nausea, heartburn, headaches. Besides these, some women reclaim feelings of depression, anxiety, fear and mood swings. You might also feel the weight gain (that will most probably occur from the first trimester) as one of the important changes in your body, especially if you’ve had constantly swinging weight gain over the past few years.

It is recommended to gain about 3 to 5 pounds in the first trimester of pregnancy. Sometimes it’s difficult to gain weight during pregnancy, even if you want to. You might even lose weight in the first trimester, because of the morning sickness, lack of appetite and tiredness. How risky might this be for your baby? On the other hand, it is possible to gain much more than the normal amount of weight in the first trimester. This is also not healthy for either of you. Let’s discuss these two situations separately.

Do you gain weight the first trimester of pregnancy if you eat barely anything? Perhaps not, but you don’t have to worry about this. During the nausea-prone first trimester, few women manage to eat “by the book”. That’s why it is important to enter pregnancy with enough nutritional reserves to provide for you and your baby.

If you didn’t manage to gain at least 2 pounds after the first trimester of pregnancy, or even lose some weight you don’t need to panic, this is not a reason for the baby not to develop normally, but you should consult a specialist in nutrition. If you didn’t have healthy-eating habits before, pregnancy is the time to develop these good habits. Even if you don’t have an appetite and you feel a little sick, make sure that what you eat , at least, is high-calorie but healthy food. You don’t have to exaggerate with eating junk food and having endless desserts, even if you didn’t manage to gain the proper weight in the first trimester. This may be harmful for the baby.

On the other hand, excessive weight gain can lead to health problems for the mother, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and varicose veins, and will increase the difficulty of delivery. Besides these, it might become difficult for you to manage your weight properly after delivery. You probably know that much of the extra weight goes to your baby (7-8 pounds), the extra blood and fluid volume (8 pounds), amniotic fluid (2 pounds), uterus, placenta, breast enlargement, and extra fat stores (7 pounds) in case of illness or “hard times.”

But in the first trimester of pregnancy the baby and her “housing” are still yet very small, and your pregnancy weight gain needs are covered with 5-6 pounds. The extra pounds you gain above these 5-6 are yours only. Don’t even consider compensating them with gaining less in the second or in the third trimester. Anyway, it gets physically improbable; even if you starve yourself you could gain weight.

The question “do you gain weight the first trimester of pregnancy?” is usually posed by mothers who are concerned about their baby’s health and proper development.

If your pregnancy symptoms are earlier and more pronounced than you’d normally expect, you may be carrying a twin pregnancy. However, only a health professional can tell for sure.

1. You just feel that you are carrying more than one baby. Some mothers of twins (or higher order multiples) say that they knew right from the start that they were carrying more than one baby.

2. You experience more nausea and/or morning sickness. If you are having more than one baby, you may have an elevated hCG level (hCG is a pregnancy related hormone). This hormone is the one associated with morning sickness.

3. Other typical pregnancy symptoms may be exaggerated. Many women — but not all — who are pregnant with twins have more intense pregnancy symptoms, probably related to the extra hormones circulating through their system. You may find that your breasts are extremely tender, you have to urinate frequently, you are hungry all the time and you are always very tired.

4. A higher than average weight gain in the first 16 weeks may be your first clue that you’re carrying more than one baby. Good weight gain in early twin pregnancy is associated with a favourable outcome.
With each additional fetus a woman carries, the range of weight gain will increase. For example, a woman who starts a pregnancy in a healthy weight range might expect her weight gain to be as follows:

One fetus, 11 kg (24 lb) to 16 kg (35 lb)
Twins, 16 kg (35 lb) to 20 kg (44 lb)
Triplets, 20 kg (44 lb) to 23 kg (51 lb)
Quads, 23 kg (51 lb) to 25 kg (55 lb)

5. Your uterus seems large for gestational age. If your last menstrual period indicates an eight-week gestation, your uterus may feel more like 10 to 12 weeks to your obstetrician. This may prompt a request for an ultrasound examination.

6. You are told that you have elevated levels of AFP. AFP is one of the chemicals tested to screen for Down’s syndrome and spina bifida abnormalities. AFP levels are higher in twin pregnancies.

7. Your health care provider hears two fetal heartbeats. Two separate heartbeats can be distinguishable with a Doppler in your care provider’s office from around 18 weeks. At around 28 weeks, it may be possible to differentiate two fetal heads and multiple small parts when doing an abdominal exam.

8. You have a positive ultrasound. If you believe you are pregnant with twins, an ultrasound can be performed quite early in pregnancy. With a skilled ultrasonographer, two gestational sacs, two embryos and two distinct fetal heartbeats can be seen six weeks after the first day of the last menstrual period. Many twins have been diagnosed as early as five weeks — when you’re just one week late for your menstrual period.

9. In later pregnancy, you may experience difficulty catching your breath, swelling (oedema) of the hands and legs, an unusual rate of weight gain and abdominal enlargement and excessive fetal movement. Anaemia or low iron (decreased haemoglobin) is also common with twin and multiple pregnancies.

10. There is considerable disagreement among medical professionals as to whether a woman carrying twins is more likely to feel movement earlier. But many mothers do claim that those early flutters and flips were their first clue that they might be having more than one.