Kathy:
Question: Is is possible to measure the IgA in mom's milk? Do we know how
much is enough or normal?
Another Question: Could allergies also manifest by angry, stiff bodied
screaming? This is the behavior of my newest grandbaby. She's 6 weeks old
now & has these screaming episodes 2+ times a day, as far as I understand
(not in my city & I haven't been able to visit yet). No tears. They have
tried ALL the comfort measures I could think of, with no effect. I have a
picture of her tucked into her car seat on the living room floor,
wide-mouth scream on her face & the pet golden lab standing protectively
nearby. No, I don't think mom has done a thorough dairy elimination diet.
Otherwise, baby is growing, gaining, etc. They are giving baby some
doctor-prescribed stomach medicine (myelcon?) with no effect.
Comment: My niece had the bloody stool experience with both her babies. It
was to the point that they needed transfusions. She was very serious about
eliminating suspected offending foods from her diet. The first baby seemed
to "outgrow" this by 3 mos & 3 transfusions. The 2nd baby needed a 4th
transfusion by that age so mom gave up and weaned to a specialty formula.
No more bloody stools or transfusions. The cause remains unknown. On my
suggestion, she said she would try a "rare foods" diet: eat anything she
had not eaten for the past year - which took her back to before conception,
and eliminate everything she had eaten in the past year. Then after a few
days to a week, slowly add in one thing at a time. I don't know how
effectively she had done this before the baby got bloody stools again. BTW:
baby was growing & gaining weight & looked bright eyed during this bloody
stool events. Mom also said there were stories of people in the family who
had a "blood problem", but her tree is difficult to trace. So far, no
answers there either.
Thanks for your time.
Phyllis
> I have seen several babies similar to this lately, and it is a very
frustrating
> problem. I have learned to tailor the treatment plan to the motivation of
> the mother. I prefer to try strict dietary elimination first, to
alleviate the
> babies symptoms, and then reintroduce one food at a time to find out
> what the offending proteins are. But moms often balk at this
> (understandably), so sometimes I will meet her half-way, and start
> Pancrease as she eliminates a couple of the most common allergens from
> her diet. Sometimes this helps, and sometimes it does not.
>
> As for the two babies recently presented, it would appear they both have
> allergies to multiple proteins. I would immediately start both moms on
> pancrease as they continue their diets. Then if symptoms clear up for
> several weeks (giving the gut a chance to heal) then they could start
> reintroducing small amounts of one thing at a time, while still taking the
> pancrease.
> I have been wondering why this is such a common problem. While doing
> research for a recent presentation, I found an article suggesting that
> mothers of these babies often have environmental allergies, and have been
> found to have low levels of IgA in their milk. The theory then is that
the
> baby would not receive adequate "coating" of the gut lining to protect it
> from foreign proteins. So my personal theory is that mothers who were not
> breastfed (most of us in America of childbearing age) and developed a
> faulty immune system (allergies) and then insufficient quantities of IgA
in
> their milk, then set up the baby for food allergy in infancy.
>
> The next piece of the puzzle for me is why/how do so many out-grow it???
>
> Kathy Leeper, MD, IBCLC
> Medical Director, MilkWorks-
> a nonprofit breastfeeding support center in
> Lincoln, NE
>
--- Phyllis Adamson, IBCLC, RLC
--- Glendale, AZ, USA
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