Hi -

If your child is wasting away and you're not getting satisfaction from
your doctors/medical insurance, there are a couple of things you can do:

1.  Keep demanding to speak with someone higher up the medical insurance
totem pole.  Explain that you need a proper diagnosis in order to keep
your child healthy.  Remind them that a healthy child is a lot less expensive
to care for than an ill child.  Don't threaten them with a lawsuit, but let
them know that one would be reasonable.

2.  Find a good doctor and pay for it out of pocket if the insurer won't
cough up.  (Save your receipts.  You may get the money back one day.)

3.  Don't know where to find a good doctor?  Check with the head allergist
and nutritionist and gastroenterologist at your nearest teaching or research
hospital.  Ask who they recommend.  Then ask one at a far-away hospital.  Keep
asking.  (You can also try Dr. Rapp for a referral if she can't help you
herself.)

These are all hard things to do.  They'll require time (which you may hnot
have) and money (which you may not have.)  You may need to consider switching
insurers, or adding a secondary insurer.  But the alternative is sitting in
front of you every day, much too tiny for her age.

Finally, keep a written record of every conversation with your doctors and
insurers.  See if you can obtain copies of test results.  Bring them with
you every time you see a new doctor or even re-visit an old doctor.

Good luck.  I wish I could offer something more concrete.
--Beth Kevles
  [log in to unmask]
  http://web.mit.edu/kevles/www/nomilk.html -- a page for the milk-allergic