Hi Mary,

My SIL and her 2 children (my nieces) have neurofibromatosis.  She does breastfeed but has not had special instructions one way or the other. I haven't seen any mention in the literature either, not that I've done an exhaustive search.  Her oldest is now 5 and neither child has any external signs of tumour growth yet.  They are positive for the gene and do have learning disabilities.

What I have seen is research on HAMLET (human 􏰅-lactalbumin made lethal to tumor cells) a protein-folding variant of alpha-lactalbumin. It is present in human milk and has been shown to kill tumor cells in vitro.  I have a couple of journal articles I can send you offline if you want.  They do not mention neurofibromatosis.

I suspect that the question was either a general health question or she's been reading the literature and making connections.  Usually children are showing signs of the disorder by age 4, since he is now 12 it may have lit a spark for her.  That assumes of course that the signs were not overlooked by the family physician when he was much younger and that he has type I

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=gene&part=nf1
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=gene&part=nf2

Jodie
LLL leader in NH 



On Jul 8, 2010, at 7:31 AM, Mary Ryngaert wrote:

> A friend of mine just sent me a message.  Her son, now 12, was recently diagnosed with neurofibromatosis.  In his intake with the peds neurologist, she was asked if he had been breastfed.  He was.  Now she's curious as to whether this is of particular significance or just a general health care question.  I am too.  Is there any evidence concerning breastfeeding and this disease?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Mary Ryngaert
> 
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