>Mom has a 5 week old baby with blood in stools, diarrea x1 day only.
>Mother cut out all diary x1 week with no improvement in baby, continues to
>have bloody stools...   Mother with hixtory of lactose intolerlance as a baby
>herself, and her mother gave up nursing.   Md adviced to quit nursing.
>Symptoms seem to clear with formula.

It is so frustrating that when a baby is having possible trouble with
something in her mother's milk, that abm relieves the problem. (Also
frustrating is how quickly HCPs reach for the abm instead of looking for
the problem.) It is, of course a temporary relief, usually 1-2 weeks, then
the problem, or a greater one, returns. By that time it is often difficult
to resume breastfeeding.

She eliminated dairy for 1 week.  As has been stressed on Lactnet, she
needs to look at hidden sources of dairy--caseine and whey in baked goods
or margarines, etc. She needs to read labels carefully. Also, it is often
necessary to eliminate a food for longer that 1 week.  If she was called
"lactose intolerant" as a baby, she is surely allergic to dairy and her
baby is reacting to these foods, and perhaps others, in her diet. What was
she fed as an infant?
We know that "lactose intolerant" is a diagnosis used when the HCP doesn't
want to say the "A" word.

Also, I have found that many dairy-sensitive babies are bothered by beef in
the mother's diet.  It is still the bovine protein.  My daughter, who is
quite dairy sensitive, finds that beef gives her similar symptoms.

She might also need to look at other highly allergenic foods such as soy
(which many mothers increase greatly when going off dairy) and wheat, corn,
etc.

I've sometimes ask a mother's mother what early foods were given to her
when she was an infant or what might have caused her problems as a child.
Often a mother will say, "I was allergic to corn when I was little, but I
outgrew the allergy."  She probably didn't really outgrow it, but the
symptoms changed--for expample, from hives to hay fever. And now the corn
may be causing reactions in her baby.

Have any other Lactnetters found such a history to be helpful in tracking
down hidden allergies?

The improvement on abm is a false improvement and will certainly be to the
detriment of the baby's health. Encourage this mom to continue looking for
something in her diet.  Support her often, as this search can be most
distressing, usually ending with some of her favorite foods needing to be
eliminated.

And encourage her to continue breastfeeding.

Have you read the recent thread on this list about blood in stools.  There
were some very good posts that will surely help you.

Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee

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