If your baby has ever had a supplementary cow’s milk formula bottle feed – even just one – then cow’s milk would be a strong suspect. Com is also often found in infant formula milk (cow’s milk and soya formulas) so may be a candidate. If your baby was given a supplementary dextrose drink (usually corn-based) while in hospital, that is another reason to suspect com. If your baby has never had any supplementary feed or drink, then prime candidates for suspicion are foods that the mother ate in large amounts in pregnancy, perhaps binged on or craved particularly, or those which the breastfeeding mother is now eating in large amounts or craving particularly. (‘Foods’ here includes any substance or drink you ingest – including tea, coffee, alcohol, sweets, snacks, drinks, cakes, herbs, spices, oils, fats and chocolate.)

If there are still no obvious candidates, then keep a Foods Diary for a few days, writing down absolutely everything you consume and the time, and noting down the time and nature of any of the baby’s symptoms, to see if there is any correlation. Some foods that the mother eats will break down rapidly, and be absorbed almost straightaway or within a couple of hours into the bloodstream and into the milk – fruit juices, drinks, many fruits and vegetables, often sugar. Other foods, such as grains or proteins, break down more slowly. Their molecules may not reach the mother’s bloodstream for up to eight to twelve hours later, and may not affect the baby for a further few hours.

So if your baby reacts first thing in the morning, before the mother has eaten, and after his or her first feed, it may be due to foods eaten by the mother at lunch or supper the day before, slowly breaking down. If the baby reacts mid-morning, after the mother has had breakfast, it may perhaps be due to drinks such as juice, tea or coffee, or to milk or fruit going straight into the system.

Sometimes no clear pattern of timing emerges from a Foods Diary and, in that circumstance, you probably just have to pick one prime suspect (such as cow’s milk, wheat, corn, eggs or orange juice) and reduce the amount you eat or leave it out of your diet totally to see. It is best to test out only one food at a time to be sure of your results.

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