Just happen to be reading about allergies (What's Eating Your Child? by Kelly Dorfman, MS,LND) and one of the first things she brought up is that when children are failing to thrive, no one ever thinks to check the baby's zinc levels even though all Dr.'s know that zinc is necessary for the production of growth hormone. A lack of zinc can also be implicated in allergies especially eczema type rashes. I had looked up some info when helping a LLL contact whose child had an eczema type rash with nothing seemed to help and came across this description of the role of zinc on the NIH.gov site:
"Zinc is involved in numerous aspects of cellular metabolism. It is required for the catalytic activity of approximately 100 enzymes [1,2] and it plays a role in immune function [3,4], protein synthesis [4], wound healing [5], DNA synthesis [2,4], and cell division [4]. Zinc also supports normal growth and development during pregnancy, childhood, and adolescence [6-8] and is required for proper sense of taste and smell [9]. A daily intake of zinc is required to maintain a steady state because the body has no specialized zinc storage system [10]."
Ditto the recommendation for mom to make sure she is digesting, but I would go a step further and say - perhaps she might want to work with a nutritionist or naturopath, etc. to make sure she is producing enough hydrochloric acid, which is necessary for proper digestion. As a long time vegetarian myself, who has struggled with this issue, I have recently been doing a LOT of research about digestion and have relearned (I was taught this years and years ago by a very wise health practitioner) that digestion begins in the mouth when we chew our food thoroughly (chew your liquids, drink your solids) and the stomach is the second place it happens with the production of HCL which is necessary for the digestion of proteins and along with other gastric juicies turns the food we eat into chyme whereupon it enters the duodenum via a sphincter, in spurts, mixes with digestive enzymes, excreted by the pancreas along with bicarbonate of soda for neutralizing acids, and bile from the gall bladder to emulsify fats. Then its on to the jejunum on its way to the ileum. Without enough saliva from chewing and HCL in the stomach, neither carbs nor proteins can digest properly. These undigested proteins can incline us toward developing allergies. There are ways to test for HCL production and ways to increase production using HCL/pepsin caps, herbs or drinking apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice in water, as well as eating kale,chard, spinach, and a few other foods. The mother may also benefit from acupuncture to help improve her digestion which might have the added benefit of not exposing baby to anything potentially allergenic.
(don't mean to sound patronizing about this, but often we may overlook the simple solutions - I know I have, especially regarding this simple but complicated process after spending so much money on digestive enzymes when, by fluke, I took a medicine and didn't digest it.. when I read up more about my reaction, all arrows pointed to a deficiency in HCL - since I started taking measures to stimulate HCL, I have begun feeling better.. and thanks for the post a few weeks back about SIBO - which has spurred this investigation of mine and which can be caused by a lack of HCL in the first place, from what I could glean)
Hope they find some good help.
This is a quote I have heard many times: There are three things that will kill a man- hurry, worry and food that is not digested.
Celina Dykstra, LLLL, IBCLC,
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