Were you breast-fed? Links to dairy intolerance as adults

[PinkyPrincess]

Hi,

I recently heard that there was a connection between kids being breastfed and developing intolerances and allergies later in life.

I was breast-fed and have dairy intolerance. Anyone else have any comments?

I found these links which are quite interesting:
Quote " Most people do not realise that dairy products where only introduced into the human diet around 10,000 years ago - the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms - suggesting that we may not be properly adapted for this food."
http://www.healthandnutrition.co.uk/articles/dairy.htm

This is quite interesting but not unbiased as they sell 'free from' foods themselves:
http://wayof-life.co.uk/dairy_intolerance.htm

Does anyone else have a view on this?

Pinky:)

[Copper]

I was not breast fed. I now realise that I was born with lactose intolerance - explains why I was so ill for the first few weeks of my life,

This does not agree with the theory does it?!

[cnc]

I was breast fed, but I was born with mucus related problems (had to have a tube down my throat not long after I was born as I stopped breathing because of mucus on my chest). Not sure where this fits in to it all!

[rebecca c]

I was breastfed for a while and then when my mum gave me milk or formula I had an extreme reaction so I was breastfed for 6 months. My mum talks about this as if it is a long time but I dont consider it so, I fed my boys for 18 months and 2 years. Also it was just assumed that after 6 months I'd be fine and nobody connected any of my later health problems to my lactose intollerance as a baby!

I think its all connected. I weaned my eldest onto soya milk which I now see as a mistake and my youngest onto goats milk. Weaning onto goats milk is common practice in some parts of the world.

[Copper]

I breast fed my eldest but she screamed day and night for 10 weeks. Things were so bad we did a test weigh 24 hours - very tedious. I weighed her then fed her and then weighed her again - she was only having 2oz milk from me at a time. After 10 weeks she decided to give up on me and then went onto a bottle. She was fine on the bottle although she was not satisified after a couple of weeks, so she was weaned early. Her first solid food was Milupa - essentailly different flavoured semolina type stuff. This is the daughter that now has lactose intolerance!!!!

I breast fed the youngest daughter too but expected trouble. Imagine my surprise when it all went well - so well that I fed her until she was 18 months. She has no sign of any intolerances yet.

[Pen]

I was not breast-fed and suffered with eczema, asthma and hayfever (and have other allergies besides). Because my eczema was so severe I was given goats' milk instead of formula for a while, but apparently it made no difference to my skin (but who knows the good it was doing to my digestive system!).

I breast-fed both my daughters--first one for a year, and second one for only 7 months (because she acquired teeth and chose to bite when she was feeding!). The elder one had asthma (and went through having croup too) from an early age and still has it (but she is trying to come off her inhalers), and hayfever too. After the year, I fed her with Wysoy soy formula, but with hindsight, I wouldn't have done that. Younger daughter had eczema for a few years when she was younger but it has gone now. She is the fittest, healthiest person in our family and hasn't been to the doctors in years.

I think that these days it is recommended that pregnant women don't eat peanuts because it may make allergies more likely in children (don't know when or where I read that, so not sure of its accuracy). I craved and ate heaps of peanuts during my first pregnancy, and this is the daughter who has asthma and hayfever.

[Copper]

I don't like peanuts so I can't blame them for my eldest daughter's intolerances.

I think our problem is inherited as my mother has always been lactose intolerant. It will be interesting to see if my grandchildren (if I have any sometime in the future) have lactose intolernace too.

[linny]

I was bottle fed and was a healthy baby. I developed hayfever when I was 14. I have psoriasis but that is a disease not an allergy. I didn't find out about my dairy intolerence until I was 37.

My daughter had colic until she was about 3. She had to be put on '2nd milk' very early on, as it contained less lactose and was therefore easier to digest. After being in hospital twice, with colic, at 6 weeks and 3 months, they tried her on soya milk but that caused her to have diarrhoea. She grew out of colic but was an extremely hard baby to wean, refused lumps etc. etc. As far as I'm aware (toch wood!) she doesn't have any intolerences now, she's 8.

[ellsie]

I was breast fed and was fine until 14 and then started developing allergies and now have multiple allergies inc. milk!:(

[cnc]

Judging on the responses so far it seems that some people do follow the theory and others don't.
I've generally been led to believe that a lot of these things are genetic and then also triggered by environmental factors.
My breathing problems seem to have been since birth, was talking to my mum the other day, and she was saying that the doctor had to be called out when I was 3 (weeks or months not sure which) because I wasn't breathing properly... Dad has hayfever, so could have got that from him. An aunt is asthmatic so that may have come from my mums side, but the lactose intolerance, I think thats just me!!

[justme]

My daughter who had very bad eczema from birth and also had a lots of mucus related problems permanent cough and also a lot of mucus in her stools (we had to have her tested for cystic fibrosis when she was 18 months because of mucus and no weight gain). As she was exclusively breast fed, on my paediatricians advice I eliminated all dairy from my diet. At 4 months of age when she was tested we also discovered her to be allergic not only to dairy but also to eggs. We do have allergies and asthma in the family. Though I do know from personal experience allergic babies who are breast fed can have their symptoms greatly reduced when the mother eliminates all foods that cause a reaction from her diet, so perhaps the breast fed yes or no for later life allergies is not quite so clear cut as too many factors need to be taken into account.

[tigerlily]

I read the other day that only the allergy gene is inherited - NOT the allergy. So just because one parent is/was allergic to dairy, does not mean that the child automatically turns out to be allergic to dairy, it could be another allergy. However, my daughter started off with a dairy allergy (around 8 months) and now is lactose intolerant. Her dad was allergic to dairy until age 3.

Eden started to be allergic to milk following a bad stomach bug and tonsillitis (at the same time).
She was breastfed for only 3 weeks because she then had heart surgery (Alder Hey) to repair a Coarctation. After that she had a lot of feeding issues and I stopped breastfeeding her.
I don't have any allergies and didn't it peanuts during pregancy.

I was wondering if any of you have first had an allergic child and then a second one and were advised to give the second child a Dairy-Free Formula from birth just in case, to cut down on the risk of allergies - that's what Eden's dietician advised us to do.

Vanessa.

[justme]

Hi

My daughter who is allergic is the 3rd of 4 children. I have mild allergies to some airborne particles, and my partner has asthma and is allergic to some pollen. Though neither of us have food allergies, so the gene may be a general allergic one.

My oldest had asthma when she was younger that she has now grown out of but remains allergic to seasonal pollens. My second child has eczema but seems not to be allergic to anything (prick test and blood test, though his results show he is predisposed to be allergic) The third child is the one allergic to dairy and eggs. The 4th has no allergies.

I did ask our paediatric allergy doctor if there was any reason to modify my diet during pregnancy. Her reply was to eat a normal balanced diet, (though I have not had a peanut in 9 years, I gave them up during my 1st pregnancy). With regard breast feeding I was advised that the likelihood of the baby being allergic was small and to feed normally in absence of any symptoms and only then to modify my diet if needed.

When we discovered my 3rd child to be allergic to eggs milk and also at the time to fish, I had to eliminated all those items from my diet so the proteins were not present in my milk. This way my I was able to breast feed my daughter. I have been led to believe that breast milk is made up from the proteins the mother has in her diet whether this is right or wrong I don’t know., I do know that modifying my diet turned my daughter from having her body covered in nasty weeping scabby like wounds, to almost normal baby like skin. I say almost as it remained very dry and she needed lots of re-hydrating creams.

The only thing we have always been advised to do is to breast feed exclusively to 6 months and then to be vary cautious when introducing solids. We introduce one food item at a time and do not rush through a whole range of foods in a short period of time. Also dairy to be introduced slightly later than it would normally have been introduced. Obviously my daughter is still dairy free, she has soya alternatives.

I suppose having one child out of four with a dairy and egg allergy is only 25%, and I am happy to say that the 6 month old is a happy healthy baby showing no signs of any allergies.

There are a lot of health care professionals who have differing opinions, and it is sometimes hard to establish what is really sound scientific advise, backed up by the latest research. A lot of information is available on the internet its just a case of searching various sources. It is also worth asking why, when sometimes presented with recommendations that perhaps you are not convinced about.