Hi all,

A mom that I have been talking to would like some input from the Lactnet
audience.  I posted about her a few weeks ago and she sent me this email
today to forward on.  This mom has put forth an amazing effort, she is
keeping an excel spreadsheet on everything she eats and so on.

My gut instinct (I am not a doc, nor do I play one on TV) is that this
child's condition has nothing to do with breastfeeding, EXCEPT that maybe it
is helping keep him healthier than he would be without breastmilk.

I would like to stress a few of my own observations.  This baby is gaining
well, stooling patterns normal (content is the question), developmentally
doing great (gives kisses :-), and is always in a good mood.

Any replies would be very much appreciated,
Nikki Simmons
LLL of Jefferson City, Missouri, USA
[log in to unmask]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ann Owens [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 10:54 AM
> To: Nikki Simmons
> Subject: Paul's history for Lactnet
>
>
> Ok Nikki, a summary of Paul's conditions follows.
> Feel free to condense as necessary (you know the
> format for the chat better than I)
>
> At 6 weeks of age my infant son began having blood in
> his stools.  The blood was dark and "speckled" his
> stools.  As to his bm's before 6 wks of age - he did
> have very frequent stools, 10 - 12 a day.  Lactation
> consultants assured me that this was probably normal,
> he was nursing that often during that time.  Because
> of a terribly fussy time during evening hours, I began
> limiting dairy products (when he was about 4 wks old).
>
>
> When the blood in the stools appeared the week of Oct.
> 5th, he was diagnosed (after blood and stool samples
> ruled out a number of possibilities and an x-ray
> showed an irritation of the lining in his colon) with
> a milk allergy.  I cut all milk/dairy products
> including anything baked with ingredients like casein
> or whey, gelatin, etc. in them.  His bloody stools
> continued throughout the month of October happening
> two to three times a week, in the evening, in 2 to
> three diapers in a row.  I didn't observe that he was
> abnormally fussy during these times.  Each week I
> experimented with elimination of "known" allergens
> cutting soy, nuts, fish, citrus fruits, and eggs in
> October.  The pattern continued in November and each
> week I cut more out of my diet:  beef, all meat.  The
> pattern continued in December and I eliminated corn,
> wheat, yeast, garlic, onion and spices out of my diet.
>  In December I tried other things also, like an
> elimination of beauty/haircare products and desitin
> (after I noticed an ingredient was cod liver oil).  In
> the middle of December he had a particularly bad week
> having bloody stools five days in a row and increasing
> overall to a pattern of three times a week with
> problem stools.  I've been keeping a spreadsheet of
> each day marking what I've eaten in hopes of finding a
> pattern.  The only correlation I seemed to find during
> this week in December was that I was taking in a lot
> of bean protein from fava, garbanzo, navy, and pinto
> beans.  Remember I haven't had any dairy products
> since the beginning of October.  He was 4 mos. old
> December 27th.  During these end weeks of Dec. and
> currently I'm eating rice, black-eyed peas, oats,
> peaches, pears, cantaloupe, raisins, prunes, and
> squash, green leafy vegetables and salt.  Around the
> 25th of December until today I have noticed that his
> bm's have regulated to 3 - 4 times a day and for about
> two weeks now, we've only seen one bloody diaper a
> week.  It seems to be slowing.  We have a Ped. GI
> specialist who has been following Paul and is planning
> a sigmoidoscopy in late January.
>
> Another strange aside to all of this was the occurrence
> of urate crystals.  During the first week in Oct.,
> when the bloody stools appeared, he began having urate
> crystals in his diapers regularly (about twice a week
> in 1 or 2 diapers).  That has continued...the last
> incidence of urates being December 16th.  Again,
> bloodwork and an urinalysis ruled out a number of
> possible and terrible problems.  A metabolic
> researcher in Milwaukee finally gave us an answer -
> that Paul is a high renal secretor, his kidneys
> produce a large amount of uric acid which may
> predispose him for uric acid kidney stones sometime in
> his future but there is nothing preventative we can do
> now except monitor the levels through urinalysis.
>
> Other than this we have a healthy, happy baby who's
> gaining beautifully, reaching proper milestones, who's
> not anemic or dehydrated.  At every corner I've talked
> with physicians and professionals through a number of
> contacts in the medical community, some who've
> encouraged the diet and breastfeeding - others who've
> suggested hypoallergenic formulas and some who wonder
> if he would tolerate even those and may need something
> like Neocate formula.  No doubt I ask myself everyday
> if I'm doing the right thing by breastfeeding and
> would appreciate any insight, wisdom from experience,
> etc. that anyone may have.
>
> Thank you

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html