Why do doctors put all symptoms down to colic

[caralee]

When my son was a baby ( now 4 1/2) he cried, screamed, whailed etc the doctors, health visitors first said well this is you first and babies do cry. Two weeks later 'Hes just a colicy baby, he will grow out of it.' At the time neither my husband and I or the 'health professionals' could see the now blindingly obvious cause was the introduction of formula milk when I stopped breastfeeding him at 4 months. Jason was not diagnosed untill hospitalised when his stools turned to blood stained mucus and he had become severely dehydrated due to a digestive system so inflamed that nothing was adsorbed.

My daughter however was fortunate enough when at 6 weeks (dispite being breast fed) she started suffering from the same blood stained mucus stools my GP refered us straight to the childrens ward. Where we have been under the care of the most caring and wonderfully caring staff at rainbow ward.

She is now a very small but healthy 10 month old, which is wonderful to see as she was so ill.

We have a collection of vitamin powders to try to perswad her to consume but other than that we have a happy girl whos starting to walk has two teeth. Provided we are very observant at the grandparents house but thats another story.

[Pam]

I was very lucky that my daughter was my third child, so when I complained about her crying all the time the HV didn't just put it down to me being a new, inexperienced mum. Maybe my HV was also more experienced and open minded and it was actually her who suggested trying soya milk. If she hadn't, goodness knows how long it would have taken to realise that cow's milk was a problem.

It is sad but true that a lot of health professionals don't believe in food intolerances, they think it is all in the mind of a neurotic mother, so we have to do all the hard work with food diaries, examples, exclusion and reintroduction etc to prove our case before they will take any notice, others just hand over the prescription for soya or alternative formula to keep us happy and get us out of the consulting room a bit quicker. Things would be so much easier if there was a greater awareness.

I'm also fortunate that our extended family are willing to 'play along' with the dairy free diet and apart from the very occasional accident we seem to do ok.