Hello Michelle!

>I am working with a mom who is having a very hard time keeping
>on enough weight to stay healthy. She deleted dairy from her
>diet because of chronic fussiness of her newborn...

I answer as a mother in a similar situation. Ive been on a
strickt diet because of my nursing daughters allergies for
over a year now. These instructions comes from our hospital
(from dietrician and MDs), too.

When a mother has to cut dairy products (cow milk protein) from
her diet, she must eat LOT to get enough calories and proteins.
That is 2-3 warm meals a day, put additional olive oil to her meals,
a lot of vegetable margarine on her bread and the most important
is to eat a lot of meat (250 g / day) to get enough proteins.
Many mothers have also noticed that they feel better if they eat
some sweet delicacies, too. When I ate like this, I didnt lose
weight too rapidly. Later I have been skipping some meals and
lost more weight.

>Part two of the question... Mom has begun to eat lots of
>peanut butter in this attempt to keep her weight up, but
>was told that  this could sensitize her baby to a peanut
>allergy.

The information is right. If her baby really is allergic,
anything her mother eat in large amounts can be a problem.
Nuts and peanuts (and eggs and soy) are specially high risk
products in such cases. I have been avoiding nuts as a
precaution. In my opinion it isint wise to eat a lot of
nuts when a mother is nursing allergic baby less than a
year old.

My daughters allergy doctor said that the most common
allergens depends on what people eats a lot: In the East
its soy, in Scandinavia cow milk and peanuts in America :-)

The allergy doctors though dont recommend any more that
nursing mothers should avoid anything more than products
that cause allergic reactions in their nursing babies. A
few years earlier the avoiding as a precaution was a
recommederation but now the scientific evidence seems to
support that nothing is avoidid until allergic reactions
rise. In other words the total avoidance as a precatution
doesnt seem to make any difference. BUT one cannot get
any allergic reaction towards an allergen if one hasnt
been exposed to it.


Best wishes,
Pia Ruohotie, a mother of two daughters
RN and a mother-to-mother bf support group leader
From Helsinki, Finland (Europe)

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