RE autoimmune disease and breastfeeding

Fiona, one thing I have noted over many years of working with allergic
families and Allergy Associations, is that auto-immune diseases such as
lupus are preceded by years of unrecognised and untreated allergy symptoms.
Many women have written to say that thye had all the minor classic allergy
symptoms in Food For Thought and other books on this subject and were
regarded as neurotic for thinking they were unwell; only when serious
illness struck were they diagnosed with autoimmune disease, which they
certainly see as a progression related to exhaustion of tehir body's
capacity to cope, due to age, nutrient depletion etc. (They are often
improved by adding LCPUFAs and reducing saturated fats; zinc is often low,
etc.) They may be wrong, but I tend to respect their insights.

Now an autoimmune-disordered mother, like any other allergic mother,is
quite likely to have a baby at higher risk of developing classic allergy
symptoms such as the mother herself may have experienced (if her mother is
still around to tell her so.) Breastfeeding AND CARE WITH DIET/CARE OF
MOTHER/LATE INTRODUCTION OF SOLIDS/AVOIDANCE OF PETS, SMOKE AND MAJOR
ALLERGENS AND CHEMICAL TOXINS is very likely to make the baby healthier
than its mother ever was. ARTIFICIAL FEEDING CAN NEVER EVER BE RECOMMENDED
IN TEH FIRST FEW MONTHS FOR THE ALLERGIC CHILD OR AT RISK CHILD. These are
the kids who react to cow, soy, hyp-allergenics and go on to elementals and
parenteral feeding if you botle feed. SOme can be exquisitely sensitive to
maternal diet, but they are still getting some great things and will do
muvch better if the mother's problem is dealt with.

SO should this mother be worried about teh rash? Yes and no. I suspect that
it's not likely to be auto-immune disease (AID) unless the intrauterine
environment has been appalling or the mother very unlucky. It is likely to
be allergy, and maybe that's the first step on to a gradient that ends in
AID. I suspect it's probably allergy and she needs her diet investigated:
will send you a free copy of FFT for her and you can report back sometime
as to whether she tries it and whether it helps 1) her 2) baby's rash.

I note that in Canada Prof John Gerrard and other allergists routinely gave
breastfeeding mothers oral Intal (sodium cromoglycate) to stabilise gut
mast cells and have major improvement in infant and maternal symptoms. Why
this is not more widely known I don't know. CAre of allergic and
immune-compromised breastfeeding women is very poor: mainly because it
takes too much time and is too much trouble when teh bottle is always
there.

Cheers, Maureen