The young drinking milk = the cause of crohn's?

Hello everyone, I've been reading about map infections being a possible cause for crohn's disease on thecrohnsinfection.org, one of their articles/videos states the possibility of crohn's being caused by young children (infants to toddlers) drinking more cow's milk and infant formula instead of breast milk. The more cow's milk an infant-toddler drinks, the more MAP bacteria they consume... And the more MAP bacteria they consume, the younger the age of crohn's disease symptoms will appear and the more severe it will be.

This makes a lot of sense for me, as I have 2 siblings (me being the middle child). I was the only one of us to develop crohn's without a family history of the disease. But I was also the one out of my siblings who was not breastfed for very long, my mother said she breast fed my brother and sister for at least 6 months, while I went to infant formula and cow's milk much much sooner. And I loved the stuff, I drank the most milk out of my siblings as well (and still do). And I started having symptoms at age 12, with full blown severe ulcerative colitis and cystic acne at age 16, and at age 25 I had an extra-colonical manifestation of it on my foot, a VERY severe infection which almost had my foot amputated, but the doctors could not grow any bacteria from the sample they took from it. And at age 26 I had my colon removed because it was so severe, and soon after I was diagnosed with crohn's due to my small bowl now being inflamed.

So, I really wanted to know, how many people here who have crohn's disease were not breast fed for very long and drank a lot of baby formula/cow's milk when they were infants and toddlers? Is this true among the young sufferers? And have older sufferers (40+) had more breast feeding and less cow's milk? Would be nice if there was a study about this. Please let me know, thanks.

Post Edited (edenenix) : 12/12/2015 12:16:51 PM (GMT-7)

I was breastfed for a very long time. I did drink a lot of milk as a child and teenager, but I have no problems with milk products now at all. In fact, cow's milk and cheddar cheese are part of my "safe" foods.

No, I didn't drink a lot of milk since we were rationed, if we wanted cereal with milk for breakfast then that was the only milk we got for the day (we were kinda poor and my mom rationed milk for her daily coffees) I actually grew up in a very high stress environment and pretty much have lived a high stress life my whole life....my mom was 40 when she had me (the last of 6 kids) and clearly I was not a welcome surprise....my mom also had UC but she didn't develop it until her mid 60's I already had CD before she got sick with her UC...she was born in 1927 and was also breast fed and had fresh cows milk since she grew up on a farm.

I was a teenager when I started getting perianal crohn's skin tags but no other CD issues and I was told the tags were hemorrhoid's until about a year after I had my first child then my CD when full blown crazy along with the tags becoming very painful and inflamed and would no longer shrink up and go away on their own like they did since I was a teen (I started smoking at 14 and on birth control pills at 15, pretty sure those were my triggers causing the perianal crohn's skin tags to appear and disappear with no other CD symptoms, I went once a day with complete control and normal BM's....there's MAP in tobacco as well so for me I think smoking and BC pills (which is one known trigger for CD) were my initial triggers.

I was severe but never hospitialized and never went into a single remission until a couple of years ago with Humira when I developed a recto-vaginal fistula which finally qualified me to go on biologics. I was either allergic or unresponsive to traditional meds used to treat IBD....about 12 years into to flaring with my CD my GI suspected I had also developed IBS, now that my CD is in remission I'm still trying to get my IBS under control (still "go" 5 sometimes more a day, not very often do I go less than 5/day) my IBS is stress driven, saw a dietitian that specializes in IBD and IBS patients to determine if my IBS is food and or stress driven, ruled out food groups that commonly are issues with most IBSers....still struggling to get my emotional stress under control.

We know that there is a genetic predisposition for Crohns and that something in the environment seems to act as a trigger such as viruses, bacterial balance , food, etc. If bottle feeding directly caused Crohn's, there would be millions more people with Crohn's disease. But there may be some validity to the MAP theory as a trigger for a subset of Crohn's sufferers.

I don't think edenenix was trying to blame anyone....just trying to figure it all out, as we all are. I was diagnosed with Crohn's shortly after my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. She felt guilty and thought the stress of her diagnosis triggered me to become ill.....somehow I just don't think it's quite that simple!!

I was strictly breastfed never had formula. And growing up we were vegetarians and also had very little dairy in the house so I rarely drank milk.

I wasn't breastfed as a baby and drank loads of cow's milk as a child. Nevertheless I was completely healthy until just before I turned 25. I'd had a history of chronic constipation as a child, but I think that was caused by a mixture of psychological issues and rubbish diet - once I sorted my diet out, the chronic constipation slowly disappeared in my late teens.

Until the onset of Crohn's I'd never had diarrhoea, GERD, parasites, c. diff, abdominal pain, etc. The only course of antibiotics I remember taking in my life was a week-long course at the age of 19 to treat a chest infection (a rarity in itself, but I was living in an even colder, damper place than usual at the time).

If MAP caused my CD I feel like it should have started somewhat earlier than it actually did: I can pinpoint almost to the day when my diarrhoea started. I was nearly 25 and got a diagnosis about 6 months later.

We had this conversation on the UC board and I was surprised how many people were breastfed. When I was young, it wasn't seen as important, I guess they didn't know the benefits. I was not breastfed, simply because my mother didn't want to breastfeed. She didn't have a job or anything that would have made it difficult. The doctors never pushed it or said it was better for the baby, so she didn't know any better.

I didn't drink milk as a child either. I've always hated milk. I would imagine I was a miserable baby that stopped milk as soon as possible.

As a child, I had normal BMs. Once a day. I got sick with proctitis at about 27. Over the next year or two, it progressed into pancolitis. I didn't take significant amounts of antibiotics I don't think. A few courses over those 27 years. Probably no more or less than anyone else.

I did grow up in a stressful environment. Lots of money troubles, parents had a really bad relationship.

Interesting thread. I think Crohn's comes from a multitude of factors. Clearly in my case it's genetic, since my family is littered with "autoimmune" diseases in every generation. I was breastfed primarily, but one factor people haven't mentioned is antibiotics in infancy. In my case, I had tons of ear infections so got quite a dose of antibiotics by age two. I drank milk as a kid, but didn't crave it. Got Crohn's at 14 and it seemed to be fairly mild once I got it under control with steroids, until I had kids in my 30s. Then it went nuts. I saw someone above mentioning that.

Interestingly, out of my two kids who were both born naturally and probably picked up my crummy microbiome, the elder had a mix of formula and breastmilk since she was in daycare for the first year. She also had lots of ear infections and was put on antibiotics often (which I'm kicking myself about now.) She looks like a clone of dad, who has no IBD issues. At 8 the jury is out on Crohn's, but she definitely has ileal SIBO and has "stomach issues." I'm treating that with excellent diet and Yakult probiotic (which interestingly is milk based but has been shown to enhance intestinal mucosal healing.) She otherwise drinks no milk, but did as a toddler - though she always hated it.

The younger 5 year old is built exactly like me, but was exclusively breastfed for almost two years. Literally, this kid NEVER took a bottle. I was too tired to figt her. She didn't get sick early on since she wasn't in daycare and I don't recall her ever being on antibiotics. Maybe once around 3. They rarely get sick, but the younger one seems to have a much better immune system. She recovers faster. Also interesting, she hardly had milk as a toddler, though for a little while I was getting what I thought was a healthier option of low vat pasteurized milk. Kicking myself for that too. I had never heard of MAP at that point. In any case, the younger one had way less milk and now they both drink almond milk and love it.

Still, I think the genetics combined with the antibiotics in infancy were more detrimental than the milk. I feel as if we all would have been exposed at some point, and my Crohn's actually started after a bad flu, probably with antibiotics at the time as well. Kind of funny since I think antibiotics played a role in my disease initially, but now they are making me well!

When you look at the whole MAP in milk thing, you have to look at the entire population, not just a few anecdotal stories. Overall, MAP has been found in increasing frequency over the last few decades, which correlates with the rise in Crohn's disease. Large scale dairy has spread the infection, to where most herds are infected and the governments were not requiring farmers to fix the problem. That is starting now in some countries. I think Dr. Collins is right when he says in his presentation that in a large sample population, there is less Crohn's in breastfed babies than those fed formula. The overall childhood exposure could trigger some. Also something to consider - MAP mutates to be able to cause disease in humans, and mycobacteria in general are a sneaky, resilient species.

I don't think amyone can beat themselves up or place blame for this disease. We can all learn from the research that's available now, and do what we think is best, but there was no way to know until recently about MAP and the link to dairy. Sure, it's been around a long time, but the govt/docs never told us. Plus, there was no internet when I got sick for my parents to even do the research!! We all did what we thought was best for ourselves and our kids, and now we move forward gaining knowledge and adjusting accordingly. Peace and health to you all, friends.

Post Edited (irishgal1) : 12/15/2015 7:39:33 PM (GMT-7)