Re: colic and various "foodstuffs".
> {snip}...I have some real concerns about prescribing diet
> restrictions to mothers based on the evidence so far presented.  Although
> I agree that in individual cases a particular "foodstuff" may be
> causative, I hesitate to label foods as "colic-producing", thereby placing
> one more barrier in mothers' decision about infant feeding.  Reactions?

I totally agree with this. I personally have come across perhaps half a dozen
women who claim their doctors *recommended* they stop breastfeeding and put the
baby onto soy formula because the baby was allergic to their milk. The logic of
this appalls me (as a highly allergic person myself) and I tend to think that a
baby that is *so* sensitive to the minimal levels of allergens in their mother's
milk, is likely not to be able to tolerate formula. In none of these cases has
the baby's "colic" improved, but the mothers have been left with a sense of
failure and a dreadful belief that their milk made their baby's ill.

In one particularly sad case (a neighbour), the baby is allergic to all commonly
available formulas and is fed on a nasty chemical mixture made specially for
him. Not only does the mother claim her doctor told her not to breastfeed
anymore, he also prescribed a drug to "dry up her milk" and so deeply convinced
was she that it was her milk that was at fault, she refused to even contemplate
re-lactation even under medical advice and despite a lot of heavy persuasion.

I hesitate to blame the nursing mother's diet as a cause of colic: it sets up
all kinds of unhelpful connections in her mind and is a grave discouragement to
breastfeeding. Having had a colicy baby myself (18 weeks of screaming for
several hours a day - and that was just the mother! :-( ), I know how people
(doctors, health workers, family and friends) tend to constantly bagger you
about whether or not there is "something wrong with your milk". I knew enough
not to take this seriously, but it was a struggle to keep having faith that my
breastmilk was really best for my baby. I am not surprised many women give up in
the face of such doubt.
--
Anna (mummy to Emma, born 17th Jan 1995 and Alice, born 11th Sept 1996)
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You were hungry and I was sorry.
You were thirsty, and I blamed the world.
You were a stranger, and I pointed you out.
You were naked, and I turned you in.
You were sick, and I said a prayer.
You were in prison, and I wrote a poem.                         STEVE TURNER
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Web Page: http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna