Prevention of allergies

Prevention of allergies begins in childhood, actually even before birth in the womb. This is because lifestyle and certain factors such as a healthy diet, breastfeeding and refraining from excessive hygiene can reduce the risk that your child will later develop allergies, or that you yourself will one day suffer from the symptoms.

Here are a few helpful tips for allergy prevention:

• Eat healthy: During pregnancy and breastfeeding, mothers can give their child a lot for a healthy and functioning immune system by eating a healthy, balanced diet rich in vital substances. According to the German Allergy and Asthma Association eating fish in particular can have a preventive effect. As soon as little ones can eat food, they should eat a varied diet without omitting specific foods - unless a food allergy is already known. The more varied the diet, the lower the risk of allergies.
• Natural birth: Natural birth presumably gives the newborn better immune protection, which babies born by cesarean section lack. This is because the latter have been shown to suffer more frequently from hay fever , food allergies or asthma. During natural birth, the child comes directly into contact with various bacteria that are important for the immune system.
• Breastfeeding: Mothers who exclusively breastfeed their child for at least four months can thereby prevent their child from developing allergies later.
• No smoking: That pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers should not smoke should be common knowledge. However, the fact that people in close proximity should also do without cigarettes for the sake of the child, many disregard. According to Lung Information Service, studies show that children of smoking parents suffer from asthma more often later than children from smoke-free families.
• Do not overdo hygiene: The immune system is built up in children in the first few years. That is, a child should come early with different pathogens in contact, so that the immune system is versatile challenged. Excessive hygiene works exactly against this. Washing hands before eating is also useful for children, with disinfectants to ensure freedom from germs, but favors the emergence of hay fever and Co.
• Avoid pollutants: Who has the choice, should prefer an apartment away from busy roads. Because pollutants increase the risk of allergies enormously. Who lives in the city, should be as little as possible on main roads, prefer to walk through little-traveled side streets and best ventilate early in the morning or late in the evening, when traffic is at its lowest.
• Reduce stress: Emotional stress has been shown to be a frequent trigger of asthma. It can weaken the immune system and throw the body out of balance by affecting the function of certain neurotransmitters. Sufficient rest and relaxation techniques can have a preventive effect here.

A healthy immune system from birth is the best basis for getting through life allergy-free. Nevertheless, there are certain risk factors that promote allergies and should therefore be avoided if possible.

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