LACTNET Archives

Lactation Information and Discussion

LACTNET@COMMUNITY.LSOFT.COM

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
"Barbara Wilson-Clay, Ibclc" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 11 Nov 1995 13:29:47 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (52 lines)
I was interested in Jon Ahrendsen's letter about baby and toddler who got ear
infects. when their nursing mother consumed lots of cow milk. He brought up
some provocative points on this kind of sensitivity.  My youngest -- who did
some nursing until she was 5-5 1/2 -- never had an ear infection until she
totally weaned.  At that point she developed a pattern which continues to
date (she's now 10) of an annual ear infection during rag weed season.  My
understanding of food (and other) intolerances is that there is a concept
called "body burden" which visualizes the immune system as a kind of weight
lifter who can heft a certain amount of immune insult.  However, if the "
load" becomes too great, the ability of the immune system to carry it
falters, everything crashes, and the body then becomes ill with whatever
opportunistic stuff is around.  Thats why people with intolerances to foods
can handle a certain amount of these foods in rotation diets etc.  Insults
which cause the "weight lifter" to stagger under the load it may be able to
normally bear are loads of  extra allergens in an environment, bacterial or
viral infections, stress, fatigue, etc.

  What I've noticed with Lydia is that when the ragweed is high, she cannot
tolerate any dairy products.  If I have my wits about me, I pull it out of
her diet totally, or limit it severely.  If I forget and she gets lots of
pizza or ice cream or breakfast cereal, sure enough, she gets a raging ear
infection.  The little bit of human milk she got during the last few yrs of
nursing was enough to keep her " weight lifter" bolstered with a bit of extra
strength. Dairy during those yrs did not exceed her body's immune burden
capability.  Without that bolster, I have to be very careful.  She has,
interestingly, the same problem with cigarette and wood smoke.  We used to be
able to use our fire place in the winter when I was nursing, but not now.

I speculate that there are people who have all kinds of sensitivities to
stuff in their diets and environments and that reactions to these things are
sometimes more complicated than simple cause and effect.  Human milk protects
the immume system, and when individual kids have reactions to proteins
migrating through milk I think we should remove the food (or whatever) and
protect the breastfeeding, and I agree with Jon that we should be following
those kids to ensure that they aren't unwittingly being made sick by
something which could be substituted for in their diets.

I know this is getting long, but I have presented before on a severely
allergic baby I saw at 4 mo pp covered with weeping eczema.  Mom was
subsisting on a diet of lamb and rice and baby still wasn't any better.  He
refused formula, and she (wisely) resisted all the people pushing her to wean
who blamed nursing for the whole thing. At 14 mo pp he finally was referred
to an environmental allergist who dx an allergy to carpet fumes.  When all
carpets were removed from his home and the family car, the child quickly got
better, and mom was able to eat a normal diet while nursing with none of the
ill effects she'd previously seen.  Baby was able to begin to really eat
solids. His body was no long so burdened trying to combate the toxic insult,
and he could consume foods he'd seemed intolerant to .

Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSE, IBCLC
priv. pract. Austin, Tx

ATOM RSS1 RSS2