[log in to unmask] wrote:
>  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.
>   
Could you please clarify what you mean by food allergy?  In my 
experience, there are _many_ people who claim to be allergic to a food, 
when they are really just sensitive to it.  As far as I know, it is only 
an actual allergy if the immune system is what is reacting.  Thus, 
anaphylaxis or hives probably mean a food allergy, while vomiting, gas, 
etc. can be signs of food sensitivity but probably not an allergy.  I do 
not mean to minimize the severity of a food sensitivity, it could indeed 
cause failure to thrive or other issues, but we should be very careful 
to be accurate about our terminology here.  I also have read some things 
that suggest that this difference in definition is why the general 
public seems to think that allergies are on the rise, while many doctors 
are convinced they are over-diagnosed.

Yes, people can outgrow allergies, if your definition of a food allergy 
is only immune response.  I have a family member who as a toddler tested 
positive to many things on a scratch test, but later to only two 
things.  This would mean that either he outgrew the allergies, or else 
the allergy shots worked.  I don't know if he may still be sensitive to 
the foods where the allergy went away, but he does consume these regularly.

I am fascinated by your ideas about mother's gut health having a huge 
impact on whether a child develops allergies.  My husband had bad food 
allergies as a small child, as did his other family members.  As far as 
I know, I have absolutely no food allergies or sensitivities.  I was 
sure that our son would end up with some food allergies and just worked 
to try to minimize them.  However, he is almost three and does not even 
have any signs of food sensitivities, let alone allergies, that I am 
aware of.  I didn't understand how this could be until I realized that 
my reasonable gut health may have avoided exposing my son to allergens 
until he was older.  This makes me think that if I had been the one with 
the allergies and my husband the one without, our son probably would 
have ended up with problems.  This is despite the fact that my son was 
stealing solids before three months, and I introduced a few of them 
starting at 4 months.

Christine Bussman

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