<<Premie baby on 7/8 breastmilk 1/8 Prem 24 cal>> WHY???? if <baby's growth
7-8 ounces per week>

<<INH for Tb >> Is that TB? What does this mean?? Please avoid this sort of
abbreviation in a global newsletter.

<<started to have bright red bloody streaks after 2 weeks of mixed
feeds as above in occasional stools ..."normal bf" bm diapers progressed to
more bloody streaks (most otherstools, 8-10 per day) were hemoccult NEG.
Hgl/ Hct is normal without supplemental iron.>

I would stake my life that this is artificial formula enterocolitis. Two
weeks is classic for the diagnosis. It takes about two weeks for a baby
newly sensitised to mount a serious response to an allergen, which is why
when the baby starts getting colicky two weeks after birth comp feeds of
formula are strongly indicated as causative. (Those sensitised in utero may
scream from birth, or else not until given doses they can't manage directly
or via mother's milk.)

<< 3 days ago baby put on SOY based ABM per Health dept doc/wic NOW STOOLS
GREEN and MORE BLOODY & MUCOUSY etc. >> Not surprising. Put another
hyperallergenic, hyperosmolar feed into a damaged gut and you get worsening
of existing damage. And so at least 40% of milk allergic kids become
allergic to soy.

<<today baby taken OFF BREAST MILK, OFF INH, Onto ALIMENTUM for next 5 days
DOC told her to freeze br milk for 5 day.>>
 Some resolution will occur immediately and in the next two weeks because
major damaging agents are now removed, including the lactose of breastmilk
-easily tolerated in a normal gut, but not digested in the damaged and so
lactase-deficient infant gut that bovine allergy has created). This will
convince everyone that Alimentum is marvellous (unless the kid has
anaphylactic reactions to it in those five days, which a small percentage
will. However, wait three weeks before you cheer: a significant minority go
on to develop symptoms on Alimentum (not sure if this is a hydrolysed or
elemental formula; not a brand I know. If hydrolysed, expect a higher rate
of reactivity than elemental.

<<Doctor says to mother (struggling to have confidence in her milk supply)
"that it might be her breastmilk causing the bleeding"..>>

If it is, it's what's in her breastmilk that her baby has now been made
allergic to. This baby needs to be on breastmilk alone, which can be
fortified (if truly needed) in non-antigenic ways as discussed earlier on
Lactnet. Now they have made the baby allergic to both bovine and soy
protein the mother may have to go on a diet avoiding these in order to get
resolution and prevent recurrence. I have to say, I wish some parents would
sue. If this family is unlucky, or has bad genes, the end point for the
severely allergic child now apparently being created from what was a
thriving healthy breastfed one is TPN, or total parenteral nutrition, and a
very complicated weaning process...and possibly marital breakdown as the
parents struggle to cope. I have seen it too often in allergic families to
be optimistic. And has anyone costed what continuing on these expensive
formulas may mean to the family: who is paying???

For goodness sake get this mother's supply going.There may be difficulties
getting the baby back to being lactose-tolerant again, after the gut damage
done, but that's easier than the alternatives.

Maureen Minchin