Hi Christine,

 

I expect you will be very cautious about this investigation, in view of the
considerable amount of misinformation out there. It seems to come in waves,
with fashions for individual health professionals or family members advising
mothers to eliminate food after food in the belief that the baby's behaviour
is because of something in the mother's diet.  It is sad to see mothers on
needlessly restricted diets, eating a very narrow range of foods, or looking
forward to finishing breastfeeding "so that they can eat normally".  There
used to be a fuzzy, much photocopied list that circulated in my state, with
no one's name on it, which advocated a severely restricted diet for the
breastfeeding mother, just because she was breastfeeding.  This list
reappears from time to time and may have originated many years ago with a
nurse or nurses.

 

When it is a matter of suspected allergy, we who are IBCLCs need to keep
within the IBLCE Code of Ethics and Scope of Practice.  If we don't have
another professional background, such as nutrition or a relevant medical
specialty, suspected allergy or intolerance is a matter where we need to
refer the mother and baby, while providing ongoing support for the
breastfeeding. (Code of Ethics, Clause 9)  It is good to maintain a list of
other professionals to refer breastfeeding dyads to, people who are
supportive of breastfeeding, and to update it regularly.

 

Apart from actual allergy, it is difficult to disengage culture from some of
the beliefs of what foods in the mother's diet might "affect" babies.  These
beliefs may also skew studies where the women are aware of the dietary item
being investigated.  If their culture is suspicious of green leafy
vegetables, for instance, they will perceive the infant's behaviour more
critically if they eat these foods.  So I would not rely on this sort of
study.  If a mother (or researcher, for that matter) strongly believes that
soy proteins are hypo-allergenic, they may not be considered an allergen
while a search for a different "culprit" goes on.

 

There are positives in what "extras" the baby receives via our milk, e.g.
the baby's familiarity with tastes experienced in the milk.  Being
breastfeed can be a great taste experience, whereas being fed a homogenous
artificial milk by bottle deprives babies of this rich taste experience.
Julie Mennella has done some interesting studies on foods ingested by the
mother - her published work is well worth accessing.  Alcohol is a different
matter, and the careful research of Mennella and colleagues has provided
information that overturns long-help beliefs on this. (The mothers and the
researchers were blinded to which mothers' orange juice contained a measured
dose of ethanol, and which didn't.)

 

As you will be aware, Christine, suspicion of allergy in the baby from foods
ingested by the mother is more common than proven allergy.  It may simply
not be the case.  A useful tool in clinical practice, as a handout for Mums,
is ILCA's recent Inside Track on this topic, by Phyllis Kombol.  It is also
downloadable from the Members Only section of the ILCA website.
(Declaration:  I am Chair of the ILCA Publications Committee which edits
Inside Tracks, but we are volunteers and receive no benefit from this.)

 

With best wishes,

Virginia

 

Dr Virginia Thorley, OAM, PhD, IBCLC, FILCA 

Brisbane, Qld, Australia 

E: [log in to unmask] 

 

On Tue, 15 Jun 2010, Christine Lichte wrote:

Subject: 

 

I am looking for recent/up-to date resources (books or internet) that
describe the physiology of how the food we eat gets into the breastmilk.
Mostly related to food allergies. How the food breaks down and how is it
transferred into the milk from the blood stream.  Thanks!

 

Christine Lichte, IBCLC

 

 


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