Untreated lyme ... Does it always mean congenital transfer?

Anyone??

Hey justascarf nice to hear from you again!
Yes I had my boy and he is just a joy I really have never been so happy! I used igenex PCR to test his cord and placenta ... Apparently weatern blot is useless at this age and PCR is what is recommended ! Both were negative ... I am obviously thrilled but part of me is still questioning... Why if I caught lyme early pregnancy and had no treatment until week 30 (for 9 weeks of Amox) would it not have gone to him? Maybe he does have it or maybe he is a miracle child ??? I don't know .
He was 9 pound and is growing great! Has no symptoms so far ! He is irritable sometimes after feeds but so are fifty percent of baby's?i don't know what to think!
Speaking to my lyme doc he says te cord blood alone would not be very influential but the placenta he says would have come up positive of the lyme bacteria had passes to the tissue ! He feels for some reason the lyme spared my baby ( he explained it as the growing fetus / placenta is just a tissue in the body and lyme does not infect all tissue ... It picks and chooses .... Basically my thigh muscle may have been infected by lyme but it may not have travelled to and infected my elbow or my knee )
I don't know what to make of it. Great about your little one ? How are you boosting immune ? I may look into this.

Congrats on your baby boy!

I was pregnant w/ my daughter when I became very ill. I didn't know that I had Lyme Disease so I had no abx. treatment during pregnancy. She is 17 months old and perfectly happy and healthy.

My LLMD said that there is a 50-50 chance that Lyme Disease will be passed in-utero if the mother has an active Lyme infections and is NOT treated w/ abx. during pregnancy.

I asked about testing my daughter, but the problem is, she has no symptoms. My LLMD said that there would be no way to know when to stop treatment if she did test positive. Treatment is clinically based on symptoms. If we tested her and she was positive, would we treat for months, a year, years?

Like others mentioned, you are armed w/ info. If you begin to see any signs of it in your son, you can then work with a LLMD to test and possibly treat him. It's great that you are aware that you had Lyme Disease and are now knowledgeable about it. Now just enjoy that precious baby boy :o) !

Hey nervous mummy -
There is another mom on here who was sharing with me how her child manifested the symptoms. They had a fever and complained as they got older. If you don't have a positive lyme test on the placenta, then I would say that unless he comes down with a fever you can't kick or is verbal enough to tell you that his leg or shoulder or whatever us hurting frequently, I think it will be difficult to determin if he has lyme. This is the delima I had to work through as if she can't talk, how will I know?

Without an obvious symptom like a fever or overly tiredness (and remember kids get sleepy and fevers when they get sick at younger ages), you will have to keep an eye on things like massive developmental delays or strange gait issues. The kids in my neighborhood when they contracted lyme from a tick, they started to do things like drag their leg and say it felt funny. I guess that could happen to a child who contracted it in utero.

Based on what you have told me do far, give the irritability a bit of time. It might subside once you both get the whole feeding time and quantity down. He might also be colicky or just get gas. Many little kids are that way and eventually work it out. Was he very jaundiced when born? I've read that us a common symptom in lyme infected newborns. To me it sounds like he is a very happy healthy baby who is lucky to have a mom like you!

As for vaccines, I'm not sure if you are in the states or abroad, but my pediatrician recommended a book called 'The Vaccine Book' by Dr. Sears. It goes through all of the details of each vaccine, why some people choose not to vaccinate and what the contents are. We did vaccinate but did an extended schedule over 3 years. It was more shots but no more then two at once and if we could get them separated we would do that. I also chose which manufacturers I wanted to get based on the ingredients.

We do not do the flu shot in our house. We do a homeopathic remedy called Guna flu. She couldn't do the flu shot when younger due to eggs in it and her egg allergy. So this year we dissolve a portion of the Guna flu in a glass of water 3 times a week during flu season to help her immune system build immunity. Knock on wood. She might catch the flu but it is supposed to be much milder. If you can get a copy of that book, read it. It's very informative.

Good luck!

Hi guys sorry to bother again! But was just wondering about diet !? Is there any particular diet you flow or you have your kiddos follow? I find it really I overwhelming when some have said on other forums to exclude so many things! Financially and mentally this seems draining! What is the importance of diet for lyme ?