>Many moms *think* that their baby is colicky, just because they are unaware
>that most babies have a fussy time somewhere between 2 & 11 PM.


I must humbly, but profoundly, disagree with this statement.  Most babies in
the world do NOT have a fussy time every day.  They are carried everywhere,
either in arms or on mother's back, nursed very frequently and are NOT EVER
FUSSY.  When you ask women in traditional cultures about colic, and describe
what you mean, they have NO IDEA what you are talking about as they NEVER
see babies who act this way.  Of course, most of these women also have no
dairy products in their diet.  However, in Mali, where women do occasionally
drink cows' milk, I never heard of or saw a fussy or colicky baby, not one,
in over 2.5 years of research and living among the people.  I think that
dairy intolerance/allergy as well as the lack of physical stimulation and
the hectic pace of US life accounts for much of what we call "colic."  A
baby who had a fussy period from 2-11 pm every day MUST have some sort of
serious underlying problem.



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Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.                         email: [log in to unmask]
Anthropology Department                               phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University                                    fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX  77843-4352
http://www.prairienet.org/laleche/dettwyler.html