One of my patients, who is one of my most committed breastfeeding mothers,
recently illustrated how sensitive some babies can be to cow's milk.  Both
her three year old daughter and her 6 month old son had/have problems with
frequent ear infections despite being exclusively BF.  With the three year
old  we wondered about milk allergy affecting the infant from cows milk that
the mother was consuming.  When we resctricted cows milk from mothers diet
this improved the daughter. As she has gotten older she seemed to outgrow the
problem.

Now with the new six month old boy, problems seemed to occur again.  I asked
mom to avoid all dairy products for 3 weeks and see how 'Grant' did.  He had
no problems.  Recently mom lapsed and had pizza. Two days later Grant was
back in the office again with a definate ear infection.  "I can belive he is
so sensitive!", was the mom's comment.

Perhaps it was just co-incidence, but I doubt it.  We will see if mom avoids
Cows milk in the future how much problem Grant has.  (when mom did wean the
older sister, she had continual problems with 'colds', ear infections, until
we switched to soy formula and then she was fine.)

It really made me wonder, how many of the sick kids that are seen in doctor's
offices are there because they are not getting mom's Milk or because they are
reacting to the substitues that they are given.

*
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*  Jon Ahrendsen, M.D. FAAFP, LLLI Medical Associate   *
*  215 13th Ave SW                                                        *
*  Clarion, Iowa 50525  USA                                            *
*  515-532-2836, FAX 532-2523, Email [log in to unmask]   *
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*