Can peanut oil in nipple cream for breastfeeding mums cause nut allergy?
Kamilosan is a widely used breast cream for this purpose, and its formulation has recently been changed so that it now contains maize oil instead of peanut oil. The previous version has been blamed by some people for the increasing numbers of peanut-allergic children seen by doctors. This is an interesting idea, but does not seem to fit all the facts. Other allergies such as hayfever have also increased, but pollen concentrations have not, for example. There are clearly other reasons why allergies have increased. It does not seem that the apparent increase in nut allergy parallels a historical change in the sales of Kamilosan. Nevertheless, it seems sensible to avoid such creams which contain peanut oil, and the new version contains no nut oil.
