I have wondered about this too.A little while ago I started taking coconut oil. My digestion had collapsed and although by following the Specific Carbohydrate diet it had recovered to a certain extent, I still had issues with some foods, like meat. After starting the oil my digestion picked up considerably.It turns out that the coconut oil is full of medium-chain triglycerides - the same fatty acids that are found in breast milk. In fact, it is one of the few sources of these acids.Whilst I believe that MCTs are now added to formulas, when I was a baby they weren't, and were mostly based on cows milk. that made me wonder if perhaps I had always been deficient in MCTs.The other thing with MCTs is that the Capric, Caprylic, Lauric and Myristic acids are all powerful anti-bacterial, fungal and virals, giving the baby extra protection. Without those my gut would have been more vulnerable to imbalance and overgrowth. Add into the mix the regular doses of antibiotics I was given as a child and it is no wonder that my digestive and immune systems are in such a mess!Perhaps I was more vulnerable as a child to all the cough, colds and chest infections because I hadn't had the protection of the MCTs to start with? Back then of course, they also handed out ABs for every cough, cold and sniffle regardless of whether they were bacterial or viral.I remember reading somewhere (in one of Bruce Fife's books I think) when I was researching coconut oil, about a woman who took her baby to the doctor because it was very fretful and just wasn't thriving. She was breastfeeding. This wise man told her to go home and start eating and using coconut oil. Within two months the baby had put on more weight than in the previous 5 months and was contended and happy. I also came into contact on a Celiac forum, a woman whose 9th baby (yes 9th!) wasn't thriving. She said that each successive baby seemed to be less robust than the previous one. I wish I had known about the coconut oil back then. I suspect that with each pregnancy the woman's 'bank' of MCTs diminishes and each baby gets a weaker 'dose', or none at all.Although they may now contain coconut oil, the biggest problem with formulas these days is the sugars in them. I was watching a lecture on Youtube recently by Robert Lustig, an eminent pediatrician, and he was saying that he couldn't understand why he was getting 6-month-old OBESE babies in his clinic! When he started researching, he discovered that formulas were having glucose/fructose syrup (otherwise known as high-fructose corn syrup) added to them. It is an unnatural source of sugar. It is highly processed and is rendered into a form that is as damaging to the body as excessive alcohol, only without the brain effects! It is worth watching if you are interested. You should be able to pick it up if you put his name in.PS. I love coconut oil. I use it in cooking, as a spread, in my drinks, I even eat it off the spoon. It also makes an excellent skin moisturiser and deodorant. I rub a little under my arms after washing and drying them - within a minute or so it has soaked in and it doesn't stain my clothes either. It makes my skin soft and smells good too. It is also very healing. When I badly burned my hand, after soaking it in cold water for some hours, I started slathering coconut oil on the burn. Within a few weeks you would not have known I had burnt it!