Dear Friends:
    A woman called our local Hotline tonight for advice about weaning
abruptly; her baby is 6 weeks old. At age 3 weeks, he started having diarrhea, which
had occult blood in it. She went to one of the major teaching hospitals in our
area where the GI doctors diagnosed reflux and a cow milk protein allergy and
recommended that she wean. Her baby is calm and sleeps better and isn't in
pain now that he is on Neocate.
    She was put on an elimination diet, knows that cow milk can take two
weeks to clear from her milk, continued to take a milk-based calcium supplement
while on the elimination diet, couldn't eat broccoli or other calcium rich foods
"because it gave my baby gas" and is weaning because her baby is "allergic to
milk."
    AAARGH!
    What upsets me even more is that she will tell people that her baby was
allergic to milk, so she had to wean. She will not tell the whole story, about
her baby being allergic to cow milk protein that was in her milk. People that
she tells will get the idea that the baby was allergic to human milk, and
another myth will be perpetuated.
    I also worry about this highly sensitive baby, whose immune system will
not be strengthened by a diet of Neocate.
    Thanks for listening.
    warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE, CIMI
Maternal-Child Adjunct Faculty Union Institute and University
Film Reviews Editor, Journal of Human Lactation
Support the WHO Code and the Mother-Friendly Childbirth Initiative

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