Ooooh! I've been longing for this question to come up!

 When faced with a "typical" colicky baby (2-4 week old onset, worse at
 night, somewhat better with comfort and motion, etc.) and the mom is
 exclusively nursing, what dietary suggestions, if any, do the providers out
 there make?

1.  Mom to eat/drink any foods she likes.
2.  Mom to avoid (like the plague!) any foods/drinks she dislikes.
3.  Full history of her dairy intake - if she either dislikes the taste of
straight cow's milk, or craves it (drinks 4 glasses/day) then eliminate
*all* bovine proteins (milk, beef and anything containing them).
4.  BUT - check baby's weight gain, has the baby gained at least 30g/day
since hospital discharge? - could the "colic" just be plain old hunger?
5.  BEFORE checking mom's diet, suggest mom "marathon-nurse" (allow baby to
feed, doze, feed, doze etc, on and on and on) during the colicky time and
see if that fixes it first.  Advise her *not* to burp the baby after nursing
(this just wakes him up, and he needs more sucking to go to sleep with etc etc).

 Approximately how long do you tell mothers it takes for a food to possibly
 affect the baby after the mother's ingested it?
  >>

Any time in the next 24 hours, except bovine proteins which could have been
any time in the previous two weeks.

Really looking forward to hearing what the general consensus is on colic,
wind, irritability, crying ...

Pamela Morrison IBCLC, Zimbabwe
mailto:[log in to unmask]