I apologize for the length of this post, as it is not totally bf
related. A friend of mine has developed serious food sensitivities and
as I was readingh his latest e-mail it struck me that it sounded like
many of the symptoms that babies and children sometimes have. Then I
thought of Pam Wiggens son and suggested to my friend that breastmilk
may be helpful. Here are some of his messages, does anyone think
breastmilk would be helpful in this situation? I do believe he thinks I
am somewhat unhinged by suggesting breastmilk, but he is intrigued
nonetheless.

<<My reaction to foods is not
indigestion, but a kind of poorly understood immune response (that does
not
involve antibodies causing anaphylaxis, congestion, etc.).  I have
looked
though Medline and I have yet to see someone present a mechanism.

I am sensitive, to varying degrees, to all fruits and vegetables.  A
mild
reaction is fatigue and "brain fog" slightly more sever includes a
headache,
and the worst reaction is a powerful 24 h flue-like headache that
culminates
in vomiting followed by a 2-3 d recovery.  I am pretty good at avoiding
the
sever reactions by catching any headaches early with pain killers.
However
when I am most sensitive, the mild to moderate symptoms occur daily, ...

unless I stick to a very conservative diet of roasts and a very simple
sourdough ryebread.

It takes about 3 weeks of abstinence to desensitize to a particular
plant
species.  If I have become really sensitive, the strategy I follow is to
go
on the simple diet, then after about a week, start introducing new foods
on
a 4-day rotational basis.  To reduce the incidence of food intolerance,
there is a practice called the "Four-Day Rotational Diet".  That
involves
assigning plant and animal families to one of four particular days.
With
the aid of some charts, I am now in the process of working up my own
4-day
rotation.

Much of the problem with this is diagnosis of the condition, learning to

recognize the chronic symptoms for what they are, identifying problem
foods,
and finding out how to deal with it.  I get the impression that most
family
physicians don't know how to deal with the problem.  Mine didn't.  The
first
good information I got was from a chiropractor.  Finally, by word of
mouth,
I found a physician in Mississauga that specialized in environmental
medicine.  Among things, it was he that recommended that I get all my
Ag/Hg
fillings replaced in my mouth and try a rotational diet.>>

<<You know, I had some sort of food
problem when I was an infant.  My mother couldn't get me to eat
anything.
It was quite a serious concern until it was discovered that I would eat
"bangers and chips".  In those days, women were discourage from breast
feeding.  Too bad for me at the time.  They never knew what it was,
though.
It is hard to ask a baby if it has a headache, tummy ache, or just
doesn't
like the taste of anything.>>

Donna Hansen
Burnaby, British Columbia
mailto:[log in to unmask]

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