Eating lots of vegetables and fruits during pregnancy may lower the chance of having a baby with certain allergies, hint study findings from Japan.Greater intake of green.

And yellow vegetables, citrus fruits, and veggies and fruits high in beta carotene (generally those coloured red and orange) may lessen the risk of having a baby with eczema (itchy, dry, skin with red patches), Dr Yoshihiro Miyake at Fukuoka University and colleagues found.

Foods high in vitamin E, found in some green vegetables, similarly may lessen the risk of having a wheezy infant, they report in the journal Allergy.

Beta carotene and vit. E are two of the many vegetable and fruit antioxidants thought to benefit health. But prior investigations of maternal antioxidant intake and childhood allergies had conflicting findings. This area of research “is still developing,” Miyake said.

In the current study, Miyake’s team evaluated vegetable and fruit intake during pregnancy of 763 women and their offspring’s early-ageeczema or allergic wheeze.

The women were 30 years old on average and about 17 weeks pregnant when they reported personal and medical history. The team found that 21 per cent of the youngsters wheezed or had a “whistling in the chest in the last 12 months,” and fewer than 19 per cent hadeczema.

According to researchers, moms who ate greater amounts of green and yellow vegetables, citrus fruits or beta carotene-rich foods while pregnant were less apt to have an infant with eczema.

For example, after allowing for other eczema risk factors, eczema was more common among infants of moms who ate the least — 54 and 32 infants, respectively. Higher intake of vit. E during pregnancy was associated with a reduced likelihood of a wheezy infant.

Boosting intake of vegetables, citrus fruits and antioxidants such as beta carotene and vit. E among moms-to-be “deserves further investigation as measures that would possibly be effective in the prevention of allergic disorders in the offspring,” the researchers conclude.