Well, it's never that simple.

My son was breastfed for nearly two years. He was exposed to milk allergens
through his mother's milk. To this day (age 13), he's still hair-trigger
allergic to milk (and eggs and nuts, even though he's never eaten the
latter two). It was his propensity to be allergic to these foods that
allowed him to become sensitized through breast milk (possibly even in utero).

On the other hand, there are many children who, if fed cows milk from
birth, are more likely to become allergic to milk. I count myself among
these unfortunate ones :-(

Rather than trigger yet-another round of debate on this, I recommend that
you look through the archives - this is a perennial debate, and always
seems to come down to the same conclusion: that breast feeding is
recommended, especially when allergies (and especially milk allergies) are
in the child's family history. Further, if any particular food allergy is
in the child's family history, it would make sense for the mother to
refrain from eating these foods, or at least minimize consumption of these
foods.

Whether or not this acts to prevent the child's "becoming allergic" is open
to irresolvable debate.  The fact that it delays the child becoming
sensitized is the one thing that you can pretty much count on. And if that
gives him/her an edge, all the better.

Mark


At 06:50 AM 4/4/2000 -0700, you wrote:
>There seem to be a few other pregnant women on the
>list besides myself, so I figure this is a good time
>to bring up this question.
>
>Last evening, I took a Lactation class at the hospital
>where I will be delivering.  According to the
>instructor, children who are breast-fed do not develop
>milk allergies.  I'm questioning this generalization.
>
>
>Is this true?
>
>Suzanne
>
>__________________________________________________
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>Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
>http://im.yahoo.com


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Mark Feblowitz                  [log in to unmask]
Senior Principal MTS                    (781) 466-2947
GTE Laboratories Incorporated           (fax) (781) 466-2618
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