ALLERGY TO NONDAIRY PROTEINS IN MOTHERS MILK AS ASSESSED BY INTESTINAL PERMEABILITY TESTS

The intestinal permeability test is a noninvasive method which, when d one during a food provocation procedure, can detect the deleterious ef fect of food on the intestinal mucosa in allergic children. We report on a 1-month-old breast-fed boy with a history of regurgitation, diarr hea, difficult feeding, and malaise suggesting food allergy. Intestina l permeability tests were done with the mother's milk and showed breas t-milk-induced alterations of intestinal permeability. No improvement occurred in the child's clinical symptoms or in the results of the int estinal permeability test when the mother withdrew dairy products from her diet. Disappearance of the child's symptoms and normalization of intestinal permeability during provocation with the milk were obtained after elimination of egg and pork from the mother's diet. This observ ation suggests that dietary proteins different from cow's milk antigen s may be transferred to breast milk and induce adverse reactions in hy persensitive infants.