a Case Report from Dr David L. J. Freed, MB, MD, MIBiol
23-year-old Gillie brought her firstborn baby to see me. Gillie herself has a history of allergy, successfully treated by Dr. Helen McEwen with dietary modifications and EPD, and her mother (the baby's grandmother) is one of my longterm and not very successful CFS patients, responding somewhat to neutralisation and nutritional intervention (although not EPD) but still unwell.
Two-week-old Rachel had been born at term after a quick, uncomplicated labour for which no analgesia had been required. She was being fully breast-fed, having been put to the breast immediately after birth and had never had an artificial feed.
But Rachel couldn't sleep: she cried all the time, she wriggled and struggled and was forever woken from sleep by what seemed to be colic. Knowing about food allergy from her own experiences and those of her mother, Gillie had already noticed that the first really bad day for Rachel had been the day she (Gillie) had had cereal with milk and sugar for breakfast and a lunch of cottage cheese. After that awful day, Rachel settled a bit but then flared up again after Gillie took iron tablets (sugar coated). This was too much of a coincidence and we all thought (mother, grandmother and I) that this problem must be one of those cases when a breastfed baby is intolerant of traces of mother's food passed into the milk. [1]
Gillie immediately started avoiding all milk products and sugars, but Rachel was still unsettled and never really had a good day, so all of Gillie's foods at that stage were suspect, without any good clues.
I neutralised Gillie for the 38 foods that comprised her normal diet, including wheat but excluding milk which Gillie refused to touch again (she was already avoiding all food additives). Within a day, Rachel was a happy placid baby, sleeping the way a baby should, and has remained so for the six months of her life so far, apart from the time she had flu.
At the age of two months it was mentioned to me that Rachel hated being bathed. Unlike most babies who enjoy splashing naked in warm water, Rachel screamed virtually non-stop from the moment she was put into water until she was taken out, That problem ceased when I neutralised Gillie for the solids of tap-water (which in Manchester yields about 50 mg/l of brown sludge!).
A bit later Rachel was noted to start screaming whenever a particular auntie picked her up and cuddled her, This auntie, Gillie told me, was in the habit of wearing rather strong perfume, and she wondered whether Rachel might be allergic to it. So I neutralised Gillie for mixed perfumes and Rachel no longer screamed when being held by auntie. Gillie herself has never had any sign of intolerance or allergy to either perfume or tap water.
Too good to be true? Maybe. For the time being we have a placid baby and a content young mother. Maybe the neutralisation supplied hope and placebo only, or maybe its effect really did pass through the mother's milk to the baby.
I am writing up this case in the hope that others will try the experiment of neutralising nursing mothers in order to improve the baby's health, to see if we can gain any further anecdotal experience. The mechanism of action of neutralisation is so mysterious anyway, it would be foolish to speculate on how the phenomenon works, until we know that the phenomenon exists.
Reference [1]:
Miller V. Hazards of human milk. in Freed DLJ (ed): Health Hazards of Milk, 1984, Baillière Tindall, Eastbourne, 114-5.
Dr Stewart Morison adds: My own teaching for breast feeding mothers with fretful babies was to put a drop of breast milk in a teaspoon, dilute with four drops of water and give to baby. Further dilution (1:5) following neutralisation principles will find the right dose to calm the fretful babe!
