Hi Ann, At the risk of being too late, I have followed this thread with interest and have a few comments. As Marsha mentioned the pedi should be made aware of the renal solute load of formula in light of this babe's compromised renal status. In addition to this and based on the statement made by the pedi regarding his concern for the babe's gut and it's ability to handle anthing but predigested formula I might explore an additional approach. It is obvious that because of the severity of this illness, he is concerned that the gut has been affected either by destruction of the gut lining; brush border etc. by the virus/bacteria, loss of beneficial gut flora to antibiotic treatment or (worse ); loss of gut integrity itself to ischemia etc. With this in mind, in addition to the many benefits previously noted I would also remind him of the restorative benefits(brush border repair, return of normal flora) to breast milk IN THIS CASE followed by a suggestion to first *try* the breast milk! It IS important to note that in some cases the baby might require (or at least seem to better tolerate) an elemental formula until further along the healing process BUT all of the proven and implied benefits (along with the yet to be discovered!) are in fact *dangerous* to ignore with this sick of an infant (and this determined of a parent)! Lynn Shea Rn,Bsn,Ibclc Franklin,Massachusetts *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html