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.
|