Hello, this is a letter written by the other Peer Counselor at my clinic.  I
had asked her to respond to Debbie Nawracaj's post.

From:  Jennifer Balsitis
Date:  january 30, 1998
Subject:  Lupus and  Breastfeeding
In reply to a letter from Debbie Nawracaj R.N. IBCLC-Chicago, Ill.

Hi, I am a Breastfeeding Peer Counselor for UTMB WIC program in Conroe,
Texas.  I have two children whom were both breastfed, and I also have SLE
(lupus).  I did not find out about the lupus until my second child was 4
months old.  At this point in time, I had a lot of questions similar to
those of the 35 year old mom with twins in which you have been dealing with.
Through my own research, I learn that it was good to breastfeed even with
Lupus.  Lupus is an autoimmune disease - This basically means that your body
is unable to distinguish the difference between your body parts and
bacteria, viruses, etc.  therefore your body not only attacks germs it also
attacks bone, muscles and sometimes organs, this causes the inflamation.
Therefore, the antibodies your body produces are good it is just that your
body does not properly tell the antibodies what to attack.  So a mom with
lupus is still passing good antibodies onto their baby, and is not passing
on the disease.

I hope that this information is helpful.

Jennifer Balsitis

By
Carrie
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