Dear lactneters.  I have recently been sent a question from a mom who is
struggling to find out what is causing her baby's eczema.  She has given me
permission to cut & paste her e-mail here.  If anyone has any ideas I would
be grateful.

Here is her letter to me:

I'm still continuing my quest to solve the problem with my 5-month-old son's
eczema---what on earth is causing it?
We've been seeing a very attentive and helpful naturopath, and so far my
baby's eczema has only gotten worse.
Recently, it came across my mind that, perhaps, my baby has difficulty
digesting my milk. I've changed my diet and have weeded out all possible
aggravators in both my diet and daily life, yet still the eczema gets worse.
So I approached the naturopath about the possibility of my own milk being
difficult for my son to digest, and she agreed that it very well could be
the problem. I'm not about to wean him tomorrow---I so much want to keep
breastfeeding him until he is about 1 or 1 and a half years old---but I
think I might have to consider the likeliness of having to do so eventually
(sooner than I thought, unfortunately). In the meantime, I will try a few
more possible homeopathic aids to this problem.
Have you ever heard of or dealt with a case where a baby was not able to
break down the protein in his own mother's milk? If yes, then what was that
mother's solution to the problem? Does a mother take her child off of
breastmilk completely? The thought of taking my son off of my breastmilk
breaks my heart. He doesn't even ever drink out of a bottle, so switching
him to anything else would be a grueling task. Is there a possible
compromise?

Thank you in advance for any light you may be able to shed.

Jessica Wheelock BSc, CLC, IBCLC

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html