Hi all,

I have no answers, just another question.  A while ago, someone suggested
to me that there may be a second-generation dimension to allergy.  For
example, a woman formula-feeds her daughter, causing the daughter's
immune system to be altered in some way and sensitized to cow's milk
proteins, although she is asymptomatic.  When that child grows up and
breastfeeds her own child, she passes along her sensitivity to the child,
who then becomes reactive to the cow's-milk proteins in the breastmilk.
Is this a feasible scenario?  Has anyone heard this hypothesis before?

- Marcia McCoy, IBCLC
Happy in Minnesota because the 2-inch coating of ice on my driveway is
melting today

>>I seem to be seeing/hearing about increased numbers of infants who
develop
severe GER and/or GI bleeding due to true allergy (as evidenced by
eosinophilia) while breastfeeding.  Sometimes having the mom go off dairy
(the most common offender, I think) helps, but I've had kids who react to
unusual things in mom's diet (one reacted to white potato--we discovered
this
through trial & error & her RAST to potato was positive).  Some of these
kids
just don't gain weight/do well until they are taken off breast and put on
Neocate.

It seems evolutionarily odd that human infants should react to human
milk.
Is this condition seen more in cultures that ingest more cow milk
protein?
Has a specific gene/genes been identified as contributing?  Is there any
good
way to identify the problematic protein(s) in the mom's diet so that we
could
treat the kids with maternal dietary restriction and not unduly restrict
the
maternal diet?

Anyone with information, I'd be most interested.

Linda L. Shaw MD FAAP<<

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