Dear Janet,
Regarding the five month old baby with hives, this may or may not help.
I have nursed all three of my children.  Jasmine, now seven, nursed for
13 months.  My twin girls Dylan and Maya are 2 1/2 and still nursing.

When the twins were born, I was determined to breastfeed.  I could
remember when Jasmine first latched on; she knew just what to do, and
breastfeeding was such a pleasure I couldn't figure out why more women
didn't nurse.

Then came Dylan and Maya.  Before I left the hospital I was cracked and
bleeding.  An experienced breastfeeder, I knew something was terribly,
terribly wrong.  I put each babe on their "own" breast and quickly
figured out it was Dylan doing the damage.  By one month I was so
bruised I couldn't take the pain anymore, rented a pump to collect milk
and got to a lactation consultant as quickly as possible (we live in a
semirural area, and the closest LC was an hour away).  She evaluated
Dylan's suck and told me that Dylan had a milk allergy.  Within four
days of eliminating all milk, Dylan was better.  I wasn't healed yet,
and continued pumping.  (Despite breastfeeding at night when the milk
was plentiful, after two weeks of feeding with a bottle Dylan was
nipple confused and took two more weeks to suck train...keep pushing
those cups, eyedroppers and spoons!)

By the time the babies were two months old, I developed chronic
blisters on my nipples.  Since it wasn't a positioning problem, my LC
suggested eliminating chocolate and peanut butter from my diet.  The
problem abated somewhat, but didn't really go away until the twins were
about 18 months old.

Dylan had many cases of mysterious hives, even when totally breastfed.
I had no idea what caused it.

When Dylan started solids, I immediately began to notice reactions, so
I went very slowly.  Dylan never had, for example, wheat or egg before
a year.  I was certain of reactions to egg, sesame seed (in the form of
tahini), citrus, and walnuts (in the form of nut butter).  Other times
hives or wheezing appeared for no apparent reason.  I simply avoided
feeding her suspect foods, a simple solution.

For some reason she was 17 months old when I first fed her peanut
butter.  The reaction was terrifying:  hives all over her body,
wheezing, the works.  This convinced me to take her to an allergist.
Poor Dylan.  She's allergic to egg, milk, peanut, citrus, sesame seed,
walnut and pecan, flaxseed, fish, and shellfish.  Bravo for her doctor:
 he complimented me on choosing breastfeeding, said that if I hadn't
breastfed, Dylan would have had problems from day one, and jokingly
suggested I continue nursing until she turned 16.

About one month after taking Dylan to  the allergist, I broke out in
hives from my head to my toes.  I called my husband home from work,
convinced I was going to the emergency room, but Benadryl contained the
reaction.  I knew I already had some allergies, like penicillin and
sulfa, and the usual pollen, dust, and cat allergies.  Figuring Dylan
got her food allergies from me, I got myself to the allergist, who
confirmed allergies to wheat, rice, oats, egg, milk, soy, tomato,
chocolate, cantaloupe.  I was 33 years old--who would have ever guessed
that the very food on one's plate was responsible for ill health?

Since I was already cooking mostly from scratch, dealing with all the
allergens only took time and creativity.  I managed to keep Dylan so
"clean" that when she went back for her one-year retest, she tested
positive only for milk, egg, peanut, and a new one, corn.  (We found
out the hard way she's still allergic to citrus--thank goodness for
epinephrine.)

Since Dylan's and my diagnosis, I have found that food allergies are
far more common than I ever realized.  Has the mom ever been tested?
Dad?  Siblings? (Most allergists won't test a baby before 12 or 18
months).  Elimination diets are easy to follow, although identifying
allergens can be elusive using this method.

Food for thought,
Susan Betz