Cow milk proteins in maternal milk is only one proposed etiology of
colic.  There are several schools of thought on transmission of maternal
dietary proteins through human milk.  One arm of research being done by
immunologists suggests that these proteins are useful in inducing
tolerance in the breastfed infant, in other words, minute exposure to
dietary proteins in milk reduces the chance that they will be seen as
antigens and trigger an allergic reaction.
To further complicate this issue, Dr. Jarvinen has recently followed
exclusively bf high risk babies from allergic families from birth, and
documented that the risk of cow milk allergy in the baby (manifested by
eczema and confirmed by blood tests) correllated with alterations in the
relative numbers of various white blood cell populations and activity of
some of these cells in the mother's milk.  Her conclusion was that these
mothers failed to protect their infants from the development of allergy
due to differences in the function and proportion of neutrophils versus
macrophages in their milk.
--
Catherine Watson Genna, IBCLC  New York City  mailto:[log in to unmask]

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