New experimental drug helps fight peanut allergy [Considerable research and developments on peanut allergies are reported at an annual allergy conference including a reference to peanuts and pregnancy/breastfeeding.- JC] "Also at the academy's meeting Monday, Dr. Gideon Lack of St. Mary's Hospital at Imperial College in London reported on a study of 14,000 children in Great Britain looking at the cause of peanut allergy. It found that babies who drank soy milk or were exposed to skin creams with peanut oil in them were more likely to develop the allergy.

A family history of peanut intolerance also was associated with greater risk. But contrary to some theories, babies whose mothers ate peanuts during pregnancy or while breast-feeding were not more likely to develop the allergy.

While most children with other food allergies, such as to milk or eggs, eventually outgrow them, more than 80 percent of peanut allergies persist into adulthood."