While it is true that other things may affect the gut even in an exclusively breastfed infant, these cases are far more rare than cases where formula has been introduced. It is quite obvious that the primary insult of introducing something other than breast milk is far more harmful to gut health than these other factors. Moreover, the combination of other insults with the introduction of formula may even have a synergistically antagonistic effect, somewhat like smoking and use of birth control pills. Just think about the increasing evidence that exclusively breastfed babies are a no higher risk of contracting HIV from their mothers than formula fed babies and are a far lower risk of death, yet mixed fed babies (thanks to the destructive influence of the formula on the gut) are the ones who are at risk of contracting HIV at higher rates. In the end, we are just speculating as to the possibilities of what caused the problem for this particular infant and the answer is probably multifactorial. Furthermore, when I looked at the studies regarding food allergies, there is a very important factor that, as near as I can tell, NO ONE is researching. I'd have to dig up the studies, about fifty percent of women were found to not be transmitting cow's milk proteins through their milk. I have a huge file buried under my desk that I started after Lisa Marasco (thank you Lisa) sent me some great information on babies developing allergies through breast milk. This leads to the question of why some mothers are passing these proteins through the milk and why other mothers are not. Could this be due to engorgement and/or leaky junctions? And if so, does appropriate breastfeeding management to prevent pathological engorgement play a role in minimizing sensitization to allergens. Susan Burger, MHS, PHD, IBCLC *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html