I hear these stories all the time..."I breastfed for over a year, never used formula and my child still ended up with allergies...What's the point in breastfeeding? They're supposed to be protected from all of these problems!" These moms have every right to feel frustrated by this, and I absolutely feel their anger. It hits close to home when women corner me with these stories because I am one of those moms.

My 9-year old son was breastfed for a year, never had a drop of formula and is my one child with food allergies. When his doctor announced that he was allergic to wheat and cow's milk, my response was simple..."Are you kidding? This was a breastfed child! How could this be?" He explained that my son was genetically predisposed to having these allergies and that the severity of his symptoms were lessened because he was breastfed. When I sat down to think about it, the situation was just a nuisance--there was no need for an Epipen, no anaphylactic reaction--If he did ingest these foods he'd have diarrhea and vomit...not pleasant, to say the least, but not life-threatening. So instead of questioning whether or not this is all worth it, we should probably stop to think about how worthy breastmilk is, and how NOT giving it can make these issues worse. As my mother always says, "Everyone's got something." We're wired with whatever our issues may be at conception, and there's not a lot of control over that, but we can offset some health issues with some breastfeeding perseverance.