Ann - what a story of over-intervention, poor little baby...... This baby is growing well. He spits up - so do all babies to some degree. Do the parents know what would be normal? If the baby is in pain or discomfort, there could be several reasons why - but don't we need to know why the parents think the baby seems in pain? Is he wriggling and fussing because of fast let down, long time crying before feeding, being made to come off breast too soon, doesn't like head being held....or what??? It sounds as if you have (very sensibly) tried the simple things by adjusting the way the baby feeds, but sometimes adjustments need time to work...and maybe the baby needs two breasts at a feed now. Are the parents happy with baby-led pacing and timing of feeds? >Parents tried reflux >meds which did not seem to make a difference, I believe propulsid and >reglan. They were trying to just go with this and have weekly weight checks. >Baby gained only one ounce last week You'd expect this in a baby who is piling on the weight so well! And as you suspect, it could be more to do with the change in scale than anything else.... >Went to see pediatric gastroenterologist last week who diagnosed breastmilk >allergy. Uhoh. >Told them to take baby off breast for 72 hours, pump milk and feed >predigested. Uhoh again. > Parents decided to try. Baby refused to drink from bottle, >refused predigested. They were only able to get small amounts in her (5 >ounces in 24 hours). They went back to gastroenterologist. He said baby had >blood in stool. Dad looked at test, could not see a positive reaction. No >obvious blood. Dr. scoped the baby. Said, sorry it is not breastmilk >allergy, it is gastritis from reflux. Severe redness in throat and >esophagus. Yeah - probably from the formula. >This MD says he diagnoses 10-11 cases of breastmilk allergy every month. You mean over-diagnoses it....I am sorry to sound cynical, but do we really believe that? And his solution when he suspects this is to poke this poor little baby about in the mouth and throat, and hunt for blood in the stool, worrying the heck out of everyone.... These parents will have been made even more frantic by this sort of over-doctoring. My suggestions - and that's all they are, because I accept that of course there is a chance this baby does need specialist assessment - is for the mother (and the dad, too) to get some decent TLC, and instead of trying to solve this baby's spitting and fussing by doing something different every day, to just go with the flow a bit. Feed the baby when he wants, for as long as he wants, on one two three or however many sides he seems to want...to wrap him in a cloth for the spit up and to stop beating herself up. Personally - and this is very personal and very UK-ish! - I wouldn't even bother with the dairy-free diet for the mother. Just let her eat and drink what she wants. Try and enjoy life, and get over this bad experience. She has a spitty, fussy baby. He will get better in time, and she will learn better to cope..... I'd love to hear other thoughts on this. Am I being *too relaxed* about this, then? Heather Welford Neil NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html