Has anyone brought up the possibility of celiac sprue?  These babies often do
well on breastmilk and don't become symptomatic until wheat is introduced into
the diet.  It's possible that a wheat product was used in the rice cereal, I
would read the contents off the box.  Once the bowel is irritated by wheat it
also becomes extremely intolerant to lactose.  Kind've a secondary effect and
that could explain why baby isn't getting better yet even though the mom
stopped the cereal.  The treatment is to eliminate wheat and lactose from the
diet until the gut heals and then you can gradually reintroduce lactose.  It
can take several months though. I had a patient diagnosed with celiac sprue at
about 10 months and this is the treatment the pedi gi recommended.  This kid
really needs to see a pedi gastroenterologist..   Although after Marsha and
Jack's posts on lactose I'm not too thrilled about eliminating lactose from
the diet.

Cindy Neary RN