Baby wont drink Nutramigen :/

[LadyRenoir]

My reflux baby has a suspected CMPA.
His reflux has been under control with meds, but the doctor wa snot happy with his skin, so decided to switch from Aptamil pepti to Nutramigen. And he hates it. His feeds are dropping, he prety much have to force feed him while he is sitting in his ouncer as he wriggles and cries on our laps and feeding like this becomes impossible, and even in the bouncer it is difficult, We have had to add quite a lot of vanilla essence to his feeds, and now he won't even drink the Pepti without it, so either way we are f... He started sleeping through the night, and now his feeds dropped so much he started waking up at night a lot more and not sleeping as he is hungry, but still wont drink the milk...
Any clues how people dealt with it? We will ring the dietetician soon but it;s so stressful as I know the other milks are equally gross...

[ElspethFlashman]

We used shit loads of vanilla extract. But I do know some people use Nesquik so try that?

Tbh they are all rank, so it's doubtful any other would be very different. You just add what you have to add tbh.

[Nanasueathome]

My youngest grandson suffered with cmpa and was prescribed nutramigen
He loved it
I tried it once and have to admit it is one of the most disgusting things I have ever tasted
He’s 4 now and drinks oat milk but does have dairy foods too

[picklemepopcorn]

Have you tried swapping over slowly? So a bottle made with 3/4 old milk, 1/4 new? Then increase the amount of the new milk when he is taking that mix without question?

[purpleviolet1]

We switched over fairly slowly and added vanilla essence. He did take less initially then slowly increased as he got used to it.

[LadyRenoir]

@picklemepopcorn and @purpleviolet1 - we started last week, he was fine having 5 oz- 3 made with Aptamil and 2 with Nutramigen. Anything over is difficult. The same thing happened with Similac Alimentum before, and we just could not make that jump from 2 scoops of new formula to 3 or more in a bottle, but somehow we need to make it work until the next visit with the consultant...
?
@ElspethFlashman how much vanilla did you use? Did you eventually stop using it, or was each feed with vanilla until your baby was weaned off milk?

[purpleviolet1]

Keep it at that level for a few days and then try 2.5 scoops nutramigen? I weaned him off the vanilla essence once he was comfortable on the nutramigen and he was fine

[picklemepopcorn]

Go back to 3/2 for a while, get his sleep and weight settled again. Then after a few days, pick a meal when he is quite hungry and takes it quickly (morning bottle?) to try an extra half a scoop.

I had to give mine soy formula, which was turned into chocolate milk with nesquick. They were older though, using sippy cups not bottles.

Is he on solids at all? The other thing I did was mix formula into food. I counted the total number of scoops per day, some of them were in a drink, others stirred into puréed fruit or porridge.

[LadyRenoir]

He is 4 mo, and we were advised starting solids because of his reflux, but I'm afraid he will start choking, and want to read more about it, so no solids as of yet. It's hard as sometimes he will have more from the bottle, but more often than not just stops after 2 oz (if he will have anything at all!). I did not want him to get used to vanilla too much and have another thing we need to wean him off, but I think it will have to do for now.

How much vanilla is OK? We used up quite a big (125 ml) bottle in the last week, so not sure if we are adding too much of it?

[ElspethFlashman]

We went through it pretty quickly. I think it was around a bottle a week.

We used enough so that it smelt like a milkshake, so about 6 drops or thereabouts. We did reduce it after 2 weeks and I reckon weren't using it at all after 4 weeks.