My son is sensitive to sals (all the classics - citrus, berries, tomato sauce/paste, pineapple, dried fruit), and amines (not so much). We recently had a family dinner conversation about my food cravings during pregnancy and my husband rightly pointed out, when I recalled the various cravings for each child, that I had major salicylate cravings during that son's pregnancy - I had orange juice and dried apricots till they were coming out my ears! I haven't found anything much about pregnancy and salicylate foods, just aspirin, so I thought you may find this interesting. - Peta, by email

Responses on facebook:

Never thought of that. I had a monster craving for strawberries and ate several punnets a day sometimes. My mother warned me that I would have a child with strawberry birthmarks (old wives' tale but I actually did much to her repeated "told you so's!!). Interesting question though as my daughter was subsequently very sals intolerant (and yes, especially strawberries!) - Susan

I have often wondered this. I ate A LOT of fruit salad when pregnant with my son. I also worked in a flavour and colours factory, surrounded by chemicals. Coincidence? - Sarah

I went mad on tomato and avocado sandwiches when pregnant with my daughter - she is fine with sals and amines - note - I hated avocado before and after pregnancy. Avocado is her favourite food - Teresa

Mandarins, tomato, chillies...and a son who is sensitive to salicylate. Very interesting! - Louise

Milk. Milk like it was going out of fashion! I mean I was up in the middle of the night chugging a litre of milk almost every night! Ds can only handle a2 and fresh cheese or fresh yogurt. Any other dairy and his turns into a stink bomb lol - Kyra

I ate lots of fruit, juice, dried fruit and my son is intolerant to salicylates and now after eliminating from our family diet, I can't tolerate much of them either - Fionna

I agree with this link. 3 of my 5 show clear links. One it was additives. One fruit and milk. One I had no cravings and she has no major problems with anything. My youngest it’s too early to see. But had the milk and fruit craving for him so we will see soon enough - Kristie

One explanation for this may be that intolerances are linked to the kind of gut bacteria you have. Mum’s gut bacteria is passed to baby during particularly vaginal birth as well as through close contact and breast feeding thereafter. Any individual quirks are likely to get passed on too - Paulyn

I am so intrigued by this! A recently pregnant work mate of mine, who ate very healthily, was violently sick through her entire pregnancy. Luck of the draw? I don't think so! Of course everything we put in on and around our bodies must be affecting us. We are just so naive to it! I'm positive her morning sickness was caused by the 'very healthy' foods (ie plenty of fruit and veg) she was consuming. But how do you tell anyone in this society that something they deem as healthy may not particularly be, for your body, at that particular time. Honestly, sometimes I feel like you lot are the only ones who truly 'get' me - Rachel

Sue's comment: We wondered if pregnancy cravings would indicate possible food intolerances in the infant, but this set of stories seem to suggest that cravings don't necessarily result in a food intolerant child. However, the last two - and maybe three - stories do confirm the idea that morning sickness during pregnancy seems to be connected to food intolerance in the mother. There are similar stories in the Women's Health & Diet factsheet. Like Kristy ("Seriously, you guys need to advertise in the newspapers or something - I would have had a much different experience if was eating failsafe then!"), I wish I had known about this when I was pregnant!

See also http://www.fedup.com.au/factsheets/symptom-factsheets/womens-health-a-diet#morningsickness