At 04:52 PM 4/22/99 -0700, you wrote: >I know this subject has been discussed a lot, but I'm working with a mother >who's almost ready to quit....This mothers baby.. had been fussy for quite >some time before she called me. She called for infants verrry loose green >stools and extreme diaper rash. She had a huge supply so that was what we >worked on first, helped some but diaper rash getting worse. I had a client who presented in a similar way. Tests of stool when there is fore-milk/hind-milk imbalance does show undigested milk sugars. Mom eliminated ALL dairy foods, took strong measures to reduce her supply (one-breast feeds, sage--1/4 tsp 3x a day--, etc) and baby did improve, but still had irritated diaper area and occasional bloating and GI pain. We looked at her food diary and she eliminated other foods common to her diet. Baby healed. Then upon re-introducing her commonly eaten foods, peanut butter showed up as a major irritant. So, for this mom no dairy and no peanuts resolved her baby's health problems and she went on to feed him without GI disturbance. One thing that seemed to help restore her baby's GI tract to health was acidophilus/bifidus. That (mainly the bifidus) is the healthful bacteria that colonizes the GI tract of infants. How much of an offending food? One day she was making peanut butter cookies for the older children and she licked a finger--leading to an evening of severe intestinal cramping. >Any suggestions for this >mother who feels like she's living on bread, (she gave up wheat for a while >too) and water. Seems like every time she starts nursing baby has problems. Linda, it sounds as if this little one is highly sensitive and we know that going to abm is not going to resolve the problem. Many of my clients eat such limited diets that they feel that they have "nothing" left to eat. They have not considered vegetables other than potatoes, grains other than wheat, fruits other than citrus, and some meats. I find that sitting with them and asking them about certain vegetables, fruits, meats, etc. we can come up with plenty of foods that they can eat. But if they have always eaten just beef, peanuts, dairy foods, wheat bread, citrus, tomatoes, etc. they just don't think about all of the other foods that are readily available in our country. I do understand that overhauling ones diet at a time of such stress feels overwhelming, especially if there is a father and older children in the picture. They will be demanding their usual fare while mom eats the "new" stuff. And those "comfort foods" are often related to "mother cow." I had a mom last week whose baby is highly sensitive to dairy, but the baby is being weaned to pre-digested formula because dad objects to the dietary restricitions. Mom said that he is Italian and he just can't change his diet, and cooking two meals is more than she could manage. He also doesn't want to believe that his son cannot tolerate a "normal" diet. It is so disressing working with mothers who want to feed their babies their own milk, but, because of the 2 generations of artificial feeding, they must be the "bridge" generation on the way back to healthy feeding. Some heroic ones go on to change their diets, knowing that their babies will grow up healthier than they are. One _may_ feel trampled on when she is a "bridge." Pat Gima, IBCLC Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA 0000,0000,ffffmailto:[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