Re Beveryly Rae's comment about the baby who was colicky and gassy and unsettled -- sounds like both a cows' milk allergy reaction to the mother's diet AND a case of oversupply and the baby getting too much fore-milk and not enough of the fat-rich hind milk, as other responses have already suggested. I have a handy reference that talks about the latter: Woolridge, Michael W., and C. Fisher 1988 Colic, "overfeeding," and symptoms of lactose malabsorption in the breast-fed baby: A possible artifact of feed management. Lancet, 2:382-384. Re: hierarchy of priorities in pregnant and lactating moms. Arly Helm says that the mother has priority over the fetus in a pregnant mom, but I know of many studies showing that the fetus has priority. I haven't taken the time to look up those references, but I can if anyone is interested. One was a study of birth weights and maternal weight loss during the "Dutch Hunger Winter" of WWII when the Nazis were blockading food supplies to Holland. The moms were practically starving to death, but the fetuses/babies were OK. And there are many studies of "maternal depletion syndrome" from Third World countries that show that repeated closely-spaced pregnancies/lactations in poorly-nourished moms result in steadily deteriorating nutritional status for her over the years, but not much of an impact on birth weight of child. Arly, can you provide references that show fetus does not have priority over mom? Thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------- Katherine A. Dettwyler email: [log in to unmask] Anthropology Department phone: (409) 845-5256 Texas A&M University fax: (409) 845-4070 College Station, TX 77843-4352