But I just read, in an authoritative source, that
>when milk is cooked, the proteins are "denatured" and shouldn't be a
>problem.

I wish that that were true, but it just is not.  My daughter, who is very
dairy sensitive, would have a reaction if she ate a piece of bread with
even a little dairy in it. And in my 30+ years of working with mothers,
many of whose babies are sensitive to dairy in their diets, they all had to
do a total elimination to achieve their goal.
>
>Since eliminating dairy is difficult enough in the average diet, can a
>mother still make a reasonable test for the baby's sensitivity without
>being rigorous about small amounts in baking and such?

Unfortunately cow's milk protein is there and baby will react to it.  When
trying to get this point across to mothers (for whom I have the deepest
empathy) I remind them of the many people who have a shrimp allergy.  If a
shrimp even walked through the soup, the person will have a
life-threatening reaction. Most have heard about such severe reactions to a
speck of offending food.

What I do find, however, is that after mother and baby have been clear for
quite a while--month or more--Mother can (one time) have something with
dairy that she has missed the most and baby won't react.  But if she
assumes that he has "outgrown" his sensitivity and eats dairy foods
repeatedly, baby will resume his reactions, many times more severly than
previously.

I call that very occasional "treat" a gift from the baby, but one that is
not to be abused.

I want to explore the idea of a digestive enzyme that may render the
offending protein non-affective by more properly digesting the protein in
the stomach before it gets into the intestines.

I have a mother who is interested in trying it in a few weeks when her baby
is more clear of the foods that she is allergic to.

Pat Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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