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Early introduction of cow's milk to infants has long been known to increase fecal blood loss, but the exact amount of loss has not been known. In this study, Ziegler and co-workers randomly assigned 52 infants (31 breast-fed and 21 formula-fed) to receive either cow's milk or milk- based formula, beginning at 168 days of age. The infants were followed until 252 days of age with regular quantitative measurements of fecal blood.
Guaiac-positive stools were much more common in the cow's-milk group than in the formula group (30 vs. 5 percent) during the first four weeks of the trial, and stool hemoglobin concentrations were more than five times higher in the cow's-milk group. Infants initially fed breast milk tended to lose more blood when given…