Hi everyone,
A Mama in our LLL group has three little boys.  The older two both  have
severe allergies, and the oldest was nursed until he was five because he  could
basically eat nothing else.  Now her baby is a year old and  has been having
some kind of gastric bleeding (blood in stools) for several  months.  She cut out
dairy, and it made no difference so she added it back  in.
The foods this family can eat are very limited already.  The father is  a
vegetarian, the older boy is allergic to dairy and soy, and the middle boy is
allergic to eggs and nuts.  She homeschools because they are  anaphylactic.  (I
suggested celiac, as my son had similar symptoms.   They said they don't need
to test this babe for celiac disease because he's not  losing weight, although
he's also not gaining.  My son and nephew both  weren't diagnosed until they
were older toddlers, but the symptoms started at  this age with blood in stool
and fussiness with food and no weight gain.   It just seems to be a simple
thing to test, as wheat and other grains are a big  part of the Mother's diet,
considering all the other restrictions.)
Anyway, the specialists at BC Children's Hospital told her that the only
thing they can do is wean the baby, put him on a hypo-allergenic  "formula" and
admit him to the hospital for 2-3 weeks of intensive  testing.  This just does
not make sense to me!  Are there other ways  to determine what's going on?
She just had high hopes for this appointment  and came away with no new
information or encouragement.  She refused to  wean the baby, saying she'll just keep
doing what she's doing until he's  older.  It doesn't make sense when we know
how susceptible this babe is to  food allergies, and how protective mother's
milk is in these cases, to take him  off the breast.  There is no way this
family can afford the $800/month for  this formula anyway.
Where else can we learn more about things like this?  Are there any
specialists who deal in similar allergies in infants?
Kerri Smith
Chilliwack, BC,, Canada
Adoptive Nursing Mama to Cole and Adam
La Leche League Leader
Community Services Birth Companion

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

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