Robyn Kozierok <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>While milk does seem to be implicated in some ear infections, some seem
>to be inevitable, at least if the child inherits an unfortunate inner
>ear shape that makes them more prone to them.  My milk-allergic son
>has already had 2 ear infections (he's 8 months old) and his couldn't
>have been caused by milk.

According to the Nsouli study both wheat and dairy can cause them. Also both
gluten and casein peptides can come through the mother's milk, though most
of the studies were done on dairy.

The following are excerpts from the article "Food Allergies Linked to Ear
Infections" in the October 8, 1994 issue of "Science News."

   Just the mention of otitis media makes many parents of young
   children cringe.  Otitis Media - middle ear infection - affects
   two-thirds of children in the United States by age 2 and is the
   most common cause of acquired hearing loss in children.  Many
   get these earaches again and again, despite treatment with
   antibiotics.

   This recurrent condition does not always cause pain, but just
   the buildup of fluid behind the eardrum can impair hearing and
   lead to permanent damage.  Consequently, some 670,000 children
   a year wind up with tubes surgically implanted into the middle
   ear to keep it ventilated.  Overall, otitis media represents a
   $3.5 billion-a-year U.S. health care cost.

   Food allergies may underlie many of these multiple episodes,
   reports Talal M. Nsouli, an allergist at the Georgetown
   University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C.  He and his
   colleagues tested 104 children with recurrent ear problems for
   food allergies.  About a third proved to be allergic to milk,
   and another third reacted to wheat, with a total of 81 children
   having some allergy to a food they often ate.  The scientists
   then had parents keep those children from eating the offending
   food for 4 months.  Seventy children got better.  "Those who
   avoided those foods had significant clearance of the ear,"
   Nsouli says.

   Then parents added those foods back to the diets of the 70
   children.  Within 4 months, the middle ears became reclogged in
   66 of the children, a result that reinforces the link between
   food allergies and persistent ear problems, Nsouli and his
   colleagues note in the September "Annals of Allergy."

The published study:

Nsouli TM, "Role of food allergy in serous otitis media, "Annals of Allergy,
September 1994;73:215-219.

Don.