Look out mothers: there is yet another reason to feel guilty! Seems that research shows that mothers who are wrestling with major depression and significant anxiety also have children who are more likely to have asthma or allergies! This association doesn’t apply to adopted children, but only biological offspring.

The culprit is in the genes: researchers hypothesize that the genes that predispose you to depression may also predispose you to allergies. In fact, in other studies, it was shown that the relationship works both ways. Not only do children of depressed parents have more allergies but also parents of allergic kids have more depression. However, there is no such relationship between depressed mothers and adoptive children, nor does it apply between fathers and either biological or adoptive children.

As someone who has suffered with both depression (in my 20s) and allergies (starting in my 20s), and who is also the biological child of a woman who had allergies, I find it fascinating to think that all these things could be somehow interrelated. Who’d have thought that crying because you’re depressed or crying because your allergies are acting up could be related to a certain set of genes?

The researchers are quick to point out that a correlation between depression and allergies does not indicate that one condition causes the other. So, while it might be tempting to blame your kid’s allergies on your ex, the research doesn’t support you yet.

The only theory to help explain the relationship so far hinges on mitochondrial DNA, which is the only genetic material that is passed exclusively from mother to child. All humans can actually trace their maternal line, back through their mothers, by following the “fingerprint” of their mitochondrial DNA.