Heather, >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? I agreed with all of your post up until this point :-) I do think dairy sensitivity is a very real and genuine problem in some breastfed babies, and if your baby is screaming and unhappy all the time, going off dairy for a couple of weeks can be a useful experiment. Incidently, it is impossible to enjoy anything if your baby is like this. I would recommmend Dr William Sear's book "The Fussy Baby" - I found it such a relief to read myself and it has a lot of good information in it. UK people can easily get it from Amazon. I tried going dairy-free with my third baby - not only his "colic" and fussy behavior greatly improved, but the eczema that was appearing on his face and bottom disappeared. And all within about 3 days! I hear similar reports of miraculous cures from other mothers. I read somewhere that 60% of colicky, breastfed babies improve with the mothers going dairy-free. If it doesn't work, what have you lost? Nothing. Btw, I think formula is the *last* thing that should be given to a baby that's having enough difficulty digesting nature's best (I'm sure I won't get any arguments here). It could easily turn a slow gaining, breastfed baby into a FTT formula-fed one. I've seen it happen. -- Anna H. mailto: [log in to unmask] http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna/ *********************************************** 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