I have to respectfully disagree with anyone who thinks allergies are not on the rise. This is an area of particular interest and expertise for me. The vast majority of mothers in my practice have seen one or more other LCs before they have seen me. I am more often than not the last resort.

The babies I see do not need a latch corrected or simple measure to normalize supply, they have posterior TTs, significant structural damage or food intolerances. Lots of them are refluxing and many are on meds. The mothers most often have too little or too much milk and/or OAMER.? Often they are older b/c I do not see them first, which makes unraveling the problem so challenging.

I do agree that babies do not outgrow allergies. Nor does anyone for that matter. Either symptoms change and parents no longer associate them with allergy (such as constipation, rashes, ear infections, asthma, behavior problems) or the gut can heal. In my experience, the prior is more likely since gut healing usually requires some attention, although in an infant removing the irritants and providing exclusive feeding at breast just might do the trick, especially if those allergens happened to be mom's allergens as well and her own gut damage improved.

Some examples from my practice:

I have a client whose baby has a red ring around her anus within hours of her mother consuming tomatos in any amount. 

I saw a baby who was being fed exclusively by NG tube for FTT at 8 weeks with threat of permanent placement. She had seen other LCs and things were just getting worse. Baby on exclusive breastmilk feeds. Mom had an O/S and OAMER. Baby's PTT was clipped, baby received chiro and mom removed allergens from her diet. Baby is now a thriving 4 mos old because we removed the allergens, which were the most significant cause of her FTT, IMO. If the TT were the cause, then human milk feeding would have circumvented that problem. Baby could not grow while her gut was so damaged by the allergens. And, yes they included cow milk, soy, and gluten, but a variety of other far less common foods as well. We used muscle-testing, which is, IMO the most reliable method. Mom noticed immediately that her baby's skin became soft and her cradle cap cleared. Most often, when such foods are eliminated, moms notice how much better they feel as well, since the foods damaging the baby are often damaging the mother's gut as well--which is why baby is being damaged in the first place. 

I had another baby on rice cereal for reflux/vomiting. Baby was allergic to rice and banana, as well as the cow milk and gluten mom had eliminated on her own, and when mom eliminated those, the baby stopped vomiting or refluxing. Baby also received chiro, b/c when babies have allergies, their diaphragms are almost always out of alignment. Baby weaned off the meds and mom is rebuilding her supply after having lost it b/c she was told her milk was the problem for her baby.

Another mom relies partly on donor milk. When the donor milk came from a mom who ate the foods her baby is allergic to, baby would be miserable, but when she found another donor, symptoms resolved. 

These are not the rare cases. This is virtually every mother/baby dyad I see. You cannot assume babies are reacting to O/S. The mom in my example who had O/S was pumping. As a matter of fact, as we got baby back to breast, I did not let her drop her supply until baby was feeding again. W/o the allergens or the TT, the O/S was irrelevant. Further, supply ought to normalize as inflammation in the mother subsides. 

Allergies are on the rise, b/c women are not healthy. Remember that most of the moms were AF--our guts were damaged from birth. Then you add the SAD diet (exported all over the world) and other gut damaging practices such as vaccines, abx and other drugs as well as a sedentary lifestyle and stress and you have little hope for healthy gut function. I truly believe that to heal the baby, we must always heal the mother. When I have a baby with allergens, I encourage mom to test for her allergens too. I encourage her to heal her own gut and make dietary choices that heal inflammation. A combination of nutrition and gut healing coupled with structural work and energy medicine is my preferred approach. The change in these babies and mommies is usually quite pleasantly startling. 

Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA
Intuitive Parenting Network, LLC


Jennifer writes:
Someone I know swears that her second baby reacted to at least 10  different foods that she ate, including dairy & soy, but also  tomatoes, broccoli, sweet potatoes, fish, and I forget what else. I  have serious doubts about this. As you all know, X occurring after Y  does not mean that X *caused* Y. I agree with you, Pat, it's easy to  think: "Baby's gassy and fussy. Mom ate tomatoes earlier. Ergo, baby  is allergic to tomatoes." Baby ended up partially breastfed and  partially on Alimentum. What makes me especially doubtful is that by  the age of 18 or 24 months, this child had *no* allergies whatsoever,  not even dairy. I'm certainly not an expert on allergies, but it seems  unlikely to me that a baby would have numerous serious allergies and  then outgrow them all so quickly.I strongly suspect that the real problem was some combination of  oversupply, OAMER, or scheduling feedings or limiting time on each  breast and not allowing baby to finish the first breast first, etc. A  baby who is gulping air and not being allowed to stay on the breast  long enough to get the fattier milk might well be gassy and fussy, no  matter what mom ate or didn't eat.



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