I wonder if it's anything to do with the fact that many women with post-natal depression stop breastfeeding? They used to be *advised* to stop breastfeeding by their doctors, but now most doctors have worked out that that just makes things worse. Children who are not breastfed until the age of 12 months have a much higher chance of developing asthma than children who are.
Yeah, and I wonder if that's because children who have asthma are often allergic or insensitive to cow/animal milk, and putting them on formula means they're exposed to it much earlier? Or if it's just the immunity through mother's milk thing?
I know there's a link between asthma and anxiety/depression because it comes from the hyperventilation occulta/chronic hyperventilation syndrome that I was diagnosed with. Basically, a lot of people who were diagnosed with asthma in the 1980s/90s were just given an inhaler & told to get on with it. They weren't trained how to breathe properly using the right muscles, as in the 70s or earlier before good asthma meds were available. People who chronically hyperventilate breathe too quickly and have too little carbon dioxide in their blood. Low CO2 levels trigger adrenaline production, and too much adrenaline leads to chronic anxiety or panic attacks.
Good point - as you know, I gave up cow and soya milk because Linnea is sensitive to it in my diet. She's never had it direct, and won't for a while. Until relatively recently, it was believed impossible for cow's milk in the mother's diet to affect the baby, and actually, it's very very very common.
Because, of course, anecdotal evidence from mothers isn't possibly enough to base serious scientific research on *eye roll*.
I was reading a few months ago that apparently, a lot of adults with food allergies and intolerances were extremely fussy eaters as children. What happened in my case was that I would eat just about anything as a baby, but by the time I was 3 or 4 years old, I would eat just a very small number of different foods, and had very strict rituals around food. The thing that particularly sticks in my mind are the dairy products, because I have so many problems with them now. I remember that I could not stand the taste of "raw" milk, that I would only drink it flavoured with Kellogg's Raspberry Milkshake powder and if it was put in my orange mug, and that after I had chicken pox even the raspberry-flavoured milk tasted wrong and was never right again. I only started eating cheese when I was old enough that there were American-style pizza restaurants, but even then have never managed to eat cheese unmelted.
It seems fairly clear to me that as a small child, I must have eaten things which made me feel ill or "wrong", and I didn't know why because it didn't seem to do that to anyone else, and I didn't know that some people react badly to some foods. So instead I became fussy, eating only the foods which seemed "safe". But because I didn't have enough understanding or language to explain this, and because food allergies were fairly rare and intolerances virtually unknown, it didn't really get sorted out.
I still have to fight the urge to be fussy about food. I certainly eat far far more different things than I'd ever have tried at the age of 13, when I first became vegetarian. But I still NEED to be in control of my diet. I like to either go to a restaurant where I can choose food that is suitable for me (exclusively vegan restaurants are heaven, because I know I can eat just about anything on the menu without becoming ill), or cook at home, or eat food prepared by a friend who is fully understanding of what I can and can't eat as well as what I like and don't like to eat. I've always been twitchy if I'm forced to eat food prepared by someone I don't know well (e.g. a friend or partner's parent), because one can't easily interrogate a stranger about every single item that has been put into a dish without seeming critical. At least I have a reason for the fussiness now.
This is also one of the many reasons why I won't go on any kind of weight-loss diet, even the type that is about long-term healthy eating rather than quick mass reduction. I need to be in control of what I eat - that means ME, not some plan that says on Thursday I am eating carrot soup.
Because, of course, anecdotal evidence from mothers isn't possibly enough to base serious scientific research on *eye roll*.
I've done that rant, just over a year ago.
I've always been twitchy if I'm forced to eat food prepared by someone I don't know well (e.g. a friend or partner's parent), because one can't easily interrogate a stranger about every single item that has been put into a dish without seeming critical.
My mother would be ideal for you. She cooks very good, simple food, and will always know exactly what's in there. And it will always be a short, simple list. And she's the one who identified my dairy intolerance while breastfeeding, not the doctor. She thinks this kind of thing is important; my second-oldest sister was seriously ill from dairy intolerance, so the doctors got my mother to put her on formula. She got much, much worse. Mum's still furious.
Well yeah, of course there's going to be environmental factors as well as genetic factors. Environmental factors are important for almost all disorders. The genetic factors only give a probability of an individual child developing asthma - whether or not they actually do depends on all kinds of other things, like exposure to: dust mite, mould spores, pollen, animal fur, air pollution or whatever else that individual is predisposed to be allergic to.
Oh, it _is_ interesting, yes; I'm just venting my own ongoing frustration about the political impossibility of addressing the single most significant cause.
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Asthma-depression link
Re: Asthma-depression link
I know there's a link between asthma and anxiety/depression because it comes from the hyperventilation occulta/chronic hyperventilation syndrome that I was diagnosed with. Basically, a lot of people who were diagnosed with asthma in the 1980s/90s were just given an inhaler & told to get on with it. They weren't trained how to breathe properly using the right muscles, as in the 70s or earlier before good asthma meds were available. People who chronically hyperventilate breathe too quickly and have too little carbon dioxide in their blood. Low CO2 levels trigger adrenaline production, and too much adrenaline leads to chronic anxiety or panic attacks.
Re: Asthma-depression link
fussy eaters
I was reading a few months ago that apparently, a lot of adults with food allergies and intolerances were extremely fussy eaters as children. What happened in my case was that I would eat just about anything as a baby, but by the time I was 3 or 4 years old, I would eat just a very small number of different foods, and had very strict rituals around food. The thing that particularly sticks in my mind are the dairy products, because I have so many problems with them now. I remember that I could not stand the taste of "raw" milk, that I would only drink it flavoured with Kellogg's Raspberry Milkshake powder and if it was put in my orange mug, and that after I had chicken pox even the raspberry-flavoured milk tasted wrong and was never right again. I only started eating cheese when I was old enough that there were American-style pizza restaurants, but even then have never managed to eat cheese unmelted.
It seems fairly clear to me that as a small child, I must have eaten things which made me feel ill or "wrong", and I didn't know why because it didn't seem to do that to anyone else, and I didn't know that some people react badly to some foods. So instead I became fussy, eating only the foods which seemed "safe". But because I didn't have enough understanding or language to explain this, and because food allergies were fairly rare and intolerances virtually unknown, it didn't really get sorted out.
I still have to fight the urge to be fussy about food. I certainly eat far far more different things than I'd ever have tried at the age of 13, when I first became vegetarian. But I still NEED to be in control of my diet. I like to either go to a restaurant where I can choose food that is suitable for me (exclusively vegan restaurants are heaven, because I know I can eat just about anything on the menu without becoming ill), or cook at home, or eat food prepared by a friend who is fully understanding of what I can and can't eat as well as what I like and don't like to eat. I've always been twitchy if I'm forced to eat food prepared by someone I don't know well (e.g. a friend or partner's parent), because one can't easily interrogate a stranger about every single item that has been put into a dish without seeming critical. At least I have a reason for the fussiness now.
This is also one of the many reasons why I won't go on any kind of weight-loss diet, even the type that is about long-term healthy eating rather than quick mass reduction. I need to be in control of what I eat - that means ME, not some plan that says on Thursday I am eating carrot soup.
Re: fussy eaters
I've done that rant, just over a year ago.
My mother would be ideal for you. She cooks very good, simple food, and will always know exactly what's in there. And it will always be a short, simple list. And she's the one who identified my dairy intolerance while breastfeeding, not the doctor. She thinks this kind of thing is important; my second-oldest sister was seriously ill from dairy intolerance, so the doctors got my mother to put her on formula. She got much, much worse. Mum's still furious.
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It's still interesting.
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