Baby refusing dairy free milk

[bahhelp]

rly 8 month old. Been having an absolute nightmare the past couple of weeks with feeding. She has cmpa, had been on Neocate since about 3-4 weeks old and happily drank it even though it tastes like shite ! Dietician said we needed to do a cows milk reintroduction before weaning, so we did, we used cow and gate and she happily drank that for a couple of weeks before she started exploding at every nappy, her bum was so sore from all the poos and it was clear she was reacting it just took a couple of weeks. So we’ve (been trying!) to wean her back onto the Neocate and suprise suprise she won’t drink the stuff. I’m at a loss, she is drinking around 20 ounces a day but she used to drink 30-36 ounces a day before all this so I’m worrying she isn’t having enough.
She is simply refusing most bottles, will not open her mouth, becomes upset if I try and force it. She hasn’t had a bottle since 10.30am and shows no sign of wanting one.

I’ve tried nesquick and vanilla essence but it doesn’t make a difference she won’t drink it. She’s started waking at night again for feeds (she drinks these) wtf do i do?!
I had to pause weaning while all this has been going on because I didn’t want to fill her up on food while she wasn’t drinking any milk.

I’m so cross we did the reintroduction and wish I refused it now, her older sister has cmpa and still has a dairy free diet so it would’ve been no issues what so ever for us to do the same with dd, I could kick myself !!

Why don't you want to fill her up with food? She's at weaning age, go for it!

Because she's still getting her main nutrients from milk til she's 1, that's what is always pushed anyways ! I mean I don't want to fill her up to the point she won't want the milk (any less than she already does) isn't food before 1 just for fun?

Are there any other dairy free milks you could try? Sounds so hard! Will she drink water?

I would definitely push the food. They are all different. Four of mine were milk monsters and two just weren't. I would try not to worry and give her lots of calcium rich food and keep trying with the milk.

It's hard as she has a milk allergy what others foods are calcium rich ??
And not sure what other milks she can have at this age as a lot of them don't have enough of the nutrients in that she needs being dairy free.
I didn't have this problem with dd1 as only a year ago the nhs wasn't pushing this reintroduction thing, the dietician said it's to "confirm the diagnosis" but I think really it's a cost cutting thing as the Neocate is £30 for a 400g tin, not cheap!!

It's so weird, at 5.30pm she guzzled down 7oz!! But all day refused any 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

Sympathies, it’s so stressful trying to get enough calories in when they’re dairy free isn’t it?! We had a similar problem when we first switched to amino formula and solved it by gradually adding increasing amounts of the amino formula to the existing one. Would it work to do this with the cows milk? So just do an ounce or so of amino and the rest cows milk and then gradually increase the ratio? Obviously not ideal in that you’ll have a continued reaction while you transfer back over, but I guess it does at least get you back on the right formula! Or could you ask to try a different amino formula? Ours totally refused neocate but would (eventually!) drink puramino.

I had a similar situation with DD1 who was prescribed Neocate at around 8 months and I found that she pretty much refused to drink it. I got by with dream feeds and pushing food.
Perhaps you could put the milk into porridge and weetabix etc and try and get the milk into her that way.
Switched straight over to alpro growing up milk when she turned one as it was a total nightmare.
I hope your DD starts to drink a little more for you.

Is it just dairy she's allergic to? My little one has cmpa and I put him on the soya formula. It's not as awful tasting as neocate. Do you know if she's allergic to soya as alot of cmpa babies are. I was lucky apparently. The soya formula is about £17/£18 a tin so cheaper than neocate. If she would take it you'd at least know she's getting everything she needs nutrients wise and when she turns 1 alpro do a toddler soya that's fortified with vitamins and iron for 1-3 year olds.

My little one refused to eat Neocate, but she likes SMA Althera (only fresh though! After 30 min you have to re heat it to feed it to her).

It’s hydrolysed milk, so not as milk-free as Neocate, but it was enough to resolve her symptoms. We got it prescribed through NHs but you can buy it for £16 online www.pharmacy2u.co.uk/shop/products/sma-first-infant-milk-0150432

I appreciate it is incredibly upsetting and frustrating but it is not a cost cutting thing. Exclusion and reintroduction is the correct procedure and has been done for several years. If it took 2 weeks for her to react then she may tolerate smaller amounts. Have you been given a milk ladder by the dietitian at all? Usually started off with baked milk and slowly work up to fresh milk/milk baked formulas.

Ask the dietician if she can have the alpro growing up milk. DD was on the SMA soya based formula, she wouldn't take any of the prescribed ones. But at about 10mo it was recalled due to plastic bits found in the formula and I couldn't buy it anywhere. Her dieticians advice was to try the alpro growing up milk, it says from age 1 but as she was doing well on her solids they said it would be fine. It has added vitamins etc than just regular dairy free alternative milks. They do soya and oat versions and I think they're sweeter than the prescribed formulas so never had an issue in her taking it. We completed the milk ladder years ago, but now at age 4& a half she still prefers it as a drink than cows milk.

I will ask the dietician about another type of amino milk if she is still refusing this by the time I speak to her.
Yes her dd is on the Alpro growing up oat milk, as she also reacts to soya ! Not sure if dd2 will react to it as haven't tried her either it yet.
It's all just a nightmare, weaning is enough of a gaff without bottle refusal thrown into the mix !

I appreciate it may be guidelines but there is only 16 months between my two dds and last year with dd1 this reintroduction thing wasn't even suggested, so I'm annoyed really as didn't have any of this !

Not her dd lol I mean her sister

You could try her with goats milk which tastes better than the dairy free stuff and doesn't have the allergens?

I saw kendamil do a goats milk, mentioned it to dh but he thinks I should just stick with this one "as if she's hungry she'll drink it"
Which I guess is true ! It just worries me when she's gone from guzzling her milk every 3-4 hours, it's such a drop.

So at 4am she had 7oz and just now had had 4oz.

I was thinking if I could feed her every 5-6 hours over a 24 hour period hopefully il get 20-24oz in her, will that be okay ?

Many children with cows milk allergy also react to goats milk so not usually advised.