We see a large number of allergic breastfed babies in our breastfeeding clinic. It has long been one of our interest areas, so we have been very keen to see what answers the relevant literature holds. There have been thousands of research articles and case histories to base practitioners' management upon. This means that there really is no excuse for anyone to still be holding the view that it is possible for babies to be allergic to breast milk. Alicia, you put all of your points extremely well, and you were absolutely right about the difference in allergenic potential of the different lactoglobulins. With this huge mass of literature incriminating cow milk protein as the main culprit in these cases, we automatically advise mothers to withdraw ALL cow milk products from their diets and to continue to fully breastfeed. About 75% of the babies lose all their symptoms once this is done. We have seen allergies manifesting in an amazing number of ways, some quite subtle. Allergies can affect any part of the body's physiological systems - skin, central nervous system, digestive tract etc. With the babies whose symptoms do not abate, we refer them to a specialist nutritionist who sorts out allergy problems with great insight AND advises mothers that the best food for these babies is breast milk! Hydrolysed milks have the disadvantages already mentioned by Alicia, but will also continue to cause allergy symptoms in severely allergic babies because there are traces of cow milk protein which remain unhydrolysed after processing. We have had cases where these babies have been merely supplemented with no more than 60ml a day of hydrolysate (as well as their breast milk) and have continued to bleed from the bowel, have apnoea episodes etc until the hydrolysate was stopped. Robyn Noble and Anne Bovey, Brisbane, Australia