Health & Well-Being

Would you feed your unborn baby over 800 Big Macs? That’s exactly what one pregnant British woman did. Not because she’s a McDonald’s junkie, because if she didn’t, both she and child could have died. The mother-to-be suffered from severe food allergies, and the only food she could eat without getting violently ill during her pregnancy was a Big Mac. So, over the course of nine months, she devoured over 800, and she ended up giving birth to a whopper, a 10-pound baby boy.

While her all-beef-patties diet may seem nutritionally reckless, doctors warn that more pregnant women than ever are suffering from life-threatening allergies, everything from food to dust. In fact, one in four moms-to-be suffers from severe allergies. Many of them were allergy-free their entire lives, before suddenly developing them while pregnant. Doctors say their allergy sensitivity often vanishes right after their baby is born.

So, what makes pregnant women allergy targets? Experts say that having a big belly pushes up on your diaphragm, making it very difficult for an expectant mother to expand her lungs. So, to compensate, most of them breathe shallowly – which allows allergens to invade the sinuses more easily. On top of that, many pregnant women have weakened immune systems, because their body is strained from carrying the baby. So, you’re at a higher risk of having an extreme allergy attack. Normally, popping medication would make allergies disappear, but for pregnant women, antihistamines can compromise blood flow to both her and her baby. So, if you’re a mom-to-be and suffering from allergies, don’t prescribe your own treatment. Instead, check with your doctor ASAP to come up with a plan of action.