Mothers’ Experiences of Breastfeeding Their Infants with Cow’s Milk Protein Allergies
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: Breastfeeding is widely recognized as the optimal form of infant feeding, and provides physiological, emotional, and public health benefits. However, breastfeeding can be significantly disrupted by cow’s milk protein allergy (CMPA), the most common allergy in infancy. CMPA management requires strict maternal elimination diets or specialized formulas, which impose additional medical, emotional, and logistical burdens. While clinical literature on CMPA and research on maternal mental health in breastfeeding each exist independently, little scholarship addresses the intersection thereof. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of mothers who were breastfeeding infants diagnosed with CMPA. This research aimed to identify the challenges, coping strategies, and support needs of mothers, with the goal of informing more effective support systems. Methods: A qualitative interpretive descriptive design, guided by a feminist theoretical framework, was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten mothers recruited from a pediatric tertiary care hospital (Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario; CHEO). Reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) was used to analyze the data, with an emphasis on reflexivity, transparency, and co-construction of meaning between researcher and participants. Results: Five interconnected themes were identified: (1) Carrying the Weight Alone, wherein mothers experienced disproportionate responsibility for decision-making and advocacy amid fragmented medical support; (2) The Breaking Point, capturing the moments of cumulative strain, vulnerability, and emotional overwhelm; (3) Navigating Emotional Extremes, oscillating between pride, guilt, hope, despair, confidence and doubt; (4) Emerging from the Fog, gaining iii resilience and agency through validation, clearer information, and practical problem-solving; and (5) Reflective Wisdom, retrospectively making sense and desiring to support others. This theme highlighted breakdowns in communication, identity disruption, and the interplay of emotional, cultural, and relational dimensions of breastfeeding with CMPA. Conclusion: Mothers breastfeeding infants with CMPA navigate a complex trajectory marked by uncertainty, emotional burden, and systemic gaps in support. While breastfeeding offered resilience and meaning-making, unmet expectations and inadequate guidance amplified maternal stress. These findings underscore the need for multidisciplinary, inclusive, and compassionate support systems that address both the clinical and psychosocial dimensions of CMPA. By integrating maternal voices into CMPA management, healthcare providers can better sustain breastfeeding, enhance maternal well-being, and improve outcomes for affected families.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.011 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.007 | 0.004 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.002 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.005 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".