1st case - "By the time these medications were finished he was having blood
in his
stools.  The physician thought this was due to breastfeeding"

isn't it supposed to be the case that, logically speaking, we suspect that
the causative factor is the NEW factor? that is, baby was fine while bf for
several months, and had these new problems AFTER he was given the meds?
aren't these reactions typical after antibiotic use? oops, i forgot. always
blame breastfeeding! baby gets left in car seat on top of car, mom drives
away, baby falls to ground - it must be breastfeeding brain! little baby
broke his arm - don't set it, wean immediately!

"Mom exclusively BF (with some brief formula feeds) to 3 mos when rice cereal
added"

mom was NOT exclusively breastfeeding if she gave formula, and perhaps the
rice cereal is one of the lovely new products that contain formula, which
means that this little baby had an anaphylactic reaction to something pretty
darn specific that he had been exposed to previously.

 i think its a real shame when allergists and other professionals who
supposedly know something about allergy and diet (and ought to know something
about breastfeeding) can be "stumped" by this. the short version is, the baby
has been exposed to something that he then reacted to, which also caused the
gut bleeding, which would have healed up at some point in time if she had
kept breastfeeding.

if there were any differences in "pregnant milk" and "non-pregnant milk" we
would certainly know by now, because an older baby becoming ill and having a
near-death episode would certainly be the earliest sign of pregnancy.

i would also be hesitant about doing food challenge testing. why now? just so
they know what he is allergic to? should they really expose him to things if
it will trigger an allergy? it seems safer to just limit his diet until he is
older, as you would do with any other baby that showed a reaction to
something in his mother's milk (or a food). or, given what happened to him
before, i would want to do the food challenge at the hospital in the er.

carol brussel IBCLC

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