I agree wholeheartedly with Anne McDermott and it is worth shouting again
that when a baby has all those symptoms of intestinal discomfort, the FIRST
thing to look at is cow's milk allergy!

Anne points out that if cow's milk is the reason behind this baby's
fussiness, it will be VERY HARD to find a formula that would sit well.  So
while eliminating milk from the mother's diet seems like a big hassle, it is
NOTHING compared to the hassle of trying to find something this baby can eat
comfortably.

The mother needs reassurance that this is a *temporary* change.  She needs to
go off ALL COW'S MILK PRODUCTS for AT LEAST TWO WEEKS.  But if the culprit IS
cow's milk she may very well see a dramatic improvement in her baby's
behavior in just a few days.  Once she has maintained a NO cow's milk
products diet for the whole two weeks, she can then try adding some forms of
cow's milk - leaving the actual beverage for last.  In my experience there is
tremendous variability to how much milk product a baby can tolerate.  Some
babies are exquisitely sensitive to even a small amount;  others react only
to the beverage itself and moms can eat yoghurt, cottage cheese, etc.  (ice
cream being a particularly good etc.!)

So reassure the mom:  "Let's try this for awhile and see what happens."  If
the baby's behavior improves the mom will have a LOT of incentive to keep up
with what, at first, seems a truly bizarre diet to Americans.  She should
know, too, that the baby may become more tolerant with time - if the problem
is cow's milk.  Eventually the baby may be able to tolerate milk herself.
 (But don't try it until after one year!)

I was tremendously frustrated in my efforts to get information about this
phenomenon when I went through it personally;  at the time there was only
anecdotal word of mouth information about cow's milk sensitivity in babies.
 Nine years later there's more, but still not nearly enough, so good luck!  I
hope it works!

Mary Renard, whose 9 year old was so allergic to cow's milk that she didn't
nurse well and didn't gain weight for the first five weeks after she was born
- not what's supposed to happen to the third baby of an experienced LLLL!.
 Now she can eat pizza and ice cream...  but thinks milk tastes "weird."