> ----------
> From:         Johnson, Martha (PHMG)
> Sent:         Wednesday, November 11, 1998 5:14 PM
> To:   'lactnet @ library.ummed.edu'
> Subject:      ANAPHYLAXIS THRU BREASTMILK
>
> Hello All:
> I just did a routine postpartum home visit with a delightful woman who I
> remember well because she needed so much assistance with her first
> lactation, she and her baby had nearly every problem you can imagine.  By
> the time he was around 3 months old, my work partner and I strongly
> suspected he had some major food allergies,  but she had things pretty
> well inhand by that time, so I never heard the rest of her case history
> til today.
>   When her 1st son was around 5 months old, she was away from home at a
> professional conference,and found herself ravenously hungry, wolfed down
> an entire bowl of peanuts in the hotel cafe, and her baby soon after began
> having grave difficulty breathing, was rushed to the hospital, given
> epinephrine, and recovered.  Because we had alerted her to the baby's
> probable allergies, she had asked her ped if she ought to carry Benadryl,
> and her allergist said afterwards that the dose she gave him en route to
> the hospital probably saved his life!
>   Her local allergist said he didn't believe it was possible to become
> anaphylactic per exposure to proteins in breastmilk, but since then has
> done research and found a couple cases in the literature.
>   This was such an interesting case, but the amazing thing is, this lady
> ate a severely restricted diet for 2 1/2 years so she could breastfeed her
> boy.  Pretty great, huh?
>    Love to All from Martha Johnson RN, IBCLC in drop dead gorgeous Eugene,
> Oregon
>