Toby, Pearl, Elisa, and all,

I am seeing a lot of severe abdominal pain in infants these days.  Peds
don't know what to do about it and often label it lactose intolerance
because of the gas and sugars in stools. Undigested sugars in the intestines
is what causes all of us intestinal gas so it isn't surprising that the
babies have this upon testing.  Also labeling the baby lactose intolerant or
diagnosing reflux (which is also gaining in popularity) is easier than
facing the vast "unknown" of allergies or the management of breastfeeding.

I believe that all of the allergic reactions we are seeing in breastfed
babies today are a legacy of the reckless cows milk or abm "experiment."
The mothers who were fed
these foriegn proteins survived, but their bodies react negatively to  foods
that otherwise might not have caused them a problem.  It is a burden for the
mothers to eliminate the various foods but perhaps we are the bridge
generation back to a healthier food relationship.  Often when a mother
eliminates the offending food she feels better too.  She never knew that the
sluggishness or head conjestion, etc. weren't normal.

The two approaches I take to painful gas and crying are with maternal diet
and checking for oversupply.

I am seeing a lot of oversupply, in which the baby gets an overdose of fore
milk with its high carbo. and not enough hind milk, with fats to slow the
movement through the system.  I had three cases in the past few months in
which LI was diagnosed and weaning from the breast was prescribed.  With
two-three days of decreasing milk supply all of the babies relaxed, fed long
and deeply, and stopped the watery stools and gas pain.

Toby, your crying baby who feeds any  time he isn't crying sounds like a
possible over-supply. It could also be food allergies. I find the two often
present together.

Marie Davis, RNCLC sent me by e-mail her clinic's protocol for over-active
let down or oversupply.  It is comprehensive and quite helpful. If she reads
this post she can say whether she wants her address given out. The rototcol
is copyrighted so maybe she will publish it.

When working with diet, I begin with dairy elimination (FULL dairy
elimination). I've recently recommended eliminating all bovine protein in
one very serious case. ( beef)  I also ask about nutrasweet, as I find this
cramps a baby's intestines.  Most often these two take care of the problem,
or make great improvement.  Dairy is especially a common allergen in eczema.
Often mothers who go off dairy use soy products heavily and I've seen eczema
as a result.  As Sanna mentioned, nuts and eggs are to be looked at too.
Again, mothers will turn to peanut butter when they go off milk and cheese.
I believe these food sensitive women must be careful to not eat any food to
excess, and especially proteins. Just think of all of those foriegn proteins
these mothers were fed as one-two-old infants from jars along with their abm
or cow's milk. I believe the time to start solids got as low as two weeks.

We have compassion for the tired, anxious mother whose baby cries
inconsolably for most of her day.  And we might be reluctant to  talk about
changing her diet dramatically, but the happy baby she gets is a terrific
pay off. And to put the baby on abm will assure another generation of food
intolerant people.

I mentioned reflux earlier.  There are several posts in the archives about
reflux which confirm my experience that it is the diagnosis of the year and
it is about allergies and over-supply/over-active let down.  Relaxed feeds,
long enough to get high-fat hind milk have "cured" several reflux-diagnosed
cases in my practice.  The improvement was brought about by diet and
reducing supply.

Pat Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee