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I was recently browsing through 'The Practical Encyclopedia of Natural
Healing' by Mark Bricklin for something else and came across the
following:

start quote

DROP IN CELIAC DISEASE LINKED TO BREASTFEEDING PRACTICES

- Doctors in England are voicing a strongly positive note about what they
believe to be an decrease in the number of childhood celiac cases.  And
this, they say, is due to the fact that more women are breastfeeding
their babies these days.  In the 'Lancet', December 20-27, 1980, doctors
at St. James's University Hospital, Leeds, and at the University of
Leeds, wrote, "We believe that the incidence of celiac disease in
childhood is falling and that this is directly related to the changes in
infant feeding practices occurring in the 1970s."  This was followed by a
letter from doctors at Taunton and Somerset Hospital, Taunton, who
observed a similar decrease since Britain's 1974 recommendations on child
nutrition, "amongst which were the encouragement of breastfeeding and the
delayed introduction of cereals and solid foods into the diet until four
or six months of age."  They concluded, "Delayed introduction of gluten
into the diet in infancy may prevent the induction of gluten intolerance
and lead to a reduction in the number of patients who present with this
disorder."

end quote

If there is any substance to this, and the book was copyrighted in 1983
by Rodale Press, so it is somewhat dated, but it is still an interesting
idea.

Grampa Jim
Missouri