Wrote this late August on the portable but never sent it...
Just a thought or two before I go (you see why I have to!)
Sjogren's syndrome, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus are all suggestive of
earlier immune dysfunctions that often include food intolerance (Indeed,
some readers of Food for Thought with these disorders have written to me to
say that they consider that their auto-immune disease is the long-term
result of neglecting their "minor" disease due to food, dating back to
their badly- or not-breastfed childhood. They had all the classic signs of
food intolerant children but were treated in the usual western medical way:
drugs for respiratory disease, creams for skin problems, and so on, with no
one asking what the cause of the symptom was..)
Of course women with any immune disorders should breastfeed, although there
may be consequences for their children... But in the absence of a healthy
live-in wetnurse/surrogate mother, this seems the best option, ie giving
the best chance for immune health to a child who has had 9 months in utero
experience inside an immune-dysfunctional body. Streets ahead of using
complex mixtures of foreign antigens and interesting chemicals and
compounds formed by heat damage, one would think. (Though there's too
little research on allergy in utero -except to prove that it occurs - to be
certain. So one sticks with the normal as safest until they prove
otherwise.)
However,the reason I write is because this woman is attempting to induce
lactation using a supplementer with milk in it. She also has sore nipples.
Now readers will be aware that there are many different causes of sore
nipples. But contact dermatitis as a result of supplements flowing over the
breast-nipple teat is one that is often overlooked, just as is contact
dermatitis due to reactions to food antigen in infant saliva, even food
antigen that is there because it was in mother's milk. The clue will be
that the initial redness develops in the areas covered by the infant's
mouth, though it will extend beyond that through normal inflammatory
processes if neglected. The nipple is more sensitive than the areola, but
over time areolar involvement (all the way from dry scaly itch to weeping
excema) will occur. Intense itch can be the inital symptom. [Mind you,
intense itch in breasts in pregnancy can also be lymphatic cancer; should
never be dismissed without investigation. NMAA friend told me years ago of
a woman in WA who died young because of that symptom being dismissed.]
If suggesting induced lactation for a woman with auto-immune problems, I
would suggest a hypo-allegenic formula if money is no object. By that I
don't mean soy, or hydrolysed whey or casein, all of which contain enough
antigen to cause problems for the milk-allergic. In Australia there is only
one brand using synthetic amino acids - Neocate: I don't know the US
equivalent. Of course even it can be problematic, as there can be trace
proteins present from the fat sources (remember how peanut oil sensitised
although we were told it couldn't in the 1970s when we queried that), and
the body can make haptens to which it reacts as well. What's more, it may
take until the second generation for us to identify those problems.
But most of all I would go backwards into this woman's childhood (or get
her to read FFT and she will herself) to identify the environmental
substances that probably caused her problems initially, and may still be
exacerbating symptoms. Once the auto-immune problem has developed, avoiding
such excitants may not end the problem, but it almost always improves it,
sometimes to a degree that is really remarkable.
Last thing to mention: the WHO Hypoglycaemia paper is up on a website
http://www.who.int/chd/publications/imci/bf/hypoglyc/hypoclyc.htm
Bye for now, Maureen
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