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!
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Katherine A. Dettwyler                                email:
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Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX  77843-4352