Mary Broadfoot asked about switching ABM brands. I had the privilege of meeting and hearing a presentation by the founders of Formula, Inc. (two articulate sets of parents in the Washington DC area, whose children were brain damaged when one company deliberately omitted chloride from their products in the early 1980's). They believe it's advisable for artificially-fed babies to receive several brands in the course of a week or so, since each brand has its own mix of excesses and deficiences in nutrients and trace elements. They also encourage early solids in small amounts for the same reason - to get the widest selection of trace minerals and to avoid the still-unknown consequences of a baby NOT getting all the good stuff that's in human milk. They acknowledge that this practice may increase risk of allergies, and present the arguments that (1) when ABM is used, allergy risk is increased anyway; and (2) allergies are preferable to permanent brain damage. 

Makes sense to me.

Information about their children's brain damage was published in the Journal of Pediatrics in 1989:
Silver LB, Levinson RG, Laskin CR, Pilot LJ.  Learning disabilities as a probable consequence of using chloride-deficient formula.  J Pediatr 1989; 115: 97-99.

Linda Smith, Dayton OH
http://www.bflrc.com/bflrc.htm