Robert, you need to read more widely than Bock and Sampson, who in my
necessarily incomplete reading of the vast literature of allergy are
consistently more radical (lower prevalence, less awareness of harm of
cows' milk/formula, less supportive of exclusive breastfeeding, more
simplistic ideas about how to assess resolution) on this issue than many
many other paediatric authorities, especially those in countries where
paediatric authorities are more likely to value breastmilk and see infant
formula as hazardous. Remember the Finnish Kajosaari or Saarinen et al
studies that show 17 year olds are still more likely to be allergic if
weaned before 1 month...Like Kathy W, Pat G, Linda S, Pat Y, Joy A, and
many others who have worked at community level with families, or lived with
the problem themselves, I have no doubt whatever that people do not grow
out of sensitivities, only of symptoms. I might add that it isn't too long
since we were told they "ALL grew out of it" by the age of 12 months, then
2 years....Even American paediatrics, the world's largest professional
beneficiary of the world's largest and most profitable infant feeding
industry, has been forced to recognise that 3 year olds may still have the
problem , and the tests being used to establish that are crude indeed: as I
said, I still wouldn't take the risk of an arbitrary challenge for no
obvious gain that I can see..No time to reference all this: I'll just have
to update that book in due course. But even the 1984 Report of the Royal
College of Physicians of London and the British Nutrition Foundation had
more awareness of teh complexities of testing than is often shown:
recognised that it can take up to 3 weeks after one exposure for symptoms
to either abate or emerge, that symptoms may be dose-dependent, that a
single negative test on a single day proves very little. I hope for
everyone's sake that this poor little tot's first birthday present of
injections and alien species immune factors proves to be harmless, but I
wouldn't hold my breath if she's had major gut problems. If she's OK, and
doesn't react adversely or "come down with a virus" in the next few days,
it will be a tribute not only to the innate survival power of babies, but
also to the immune factors in her mother's milk, which have allowed her gut
to heal so well that perhaps it can now exclude antigens to which she
almost certainly remains sensitive, in my view. Follow her till she has had
her babies and we'd see who's right about this!

You might also carefully check funding sources of any studies you read on
this, the most obvious and widespread harm that artificial feeding has done
to America. There is a pattern which emerges, although there are honourable
exceptions to the pattern.

When you do finally get time to read my stuff, I'll be interested in your
responses, public or private. Cheers, MM

Maureen Minchin, IBCLC. Christ Church Vicarage, 14 Acland St., St.Kilda,
Vic. 3182 Australia. tel/fax: 61 3 9537 2640
"Taking paths of least resistance is what makes rivers - and people -
crooked." poster in Palmerston North NZ bookshop...