To think hospitals should give baby of atopic parents hypoallergenic formula instead of normal formula

[ShineSmile]

... if baby is not taking to breastfeeding for whatever reason, and needs formula milk (normally for a day or two to build up strength etc), the hospital should give baby of atopic parents hypoallergenic formula instead of normal cows milk formula?

(babies of both atopic parents have a 80% chance of allergies, which includes food allergies)

Yeah fledermaus but it's easier said than done - babies that react to dairy often also react to soy too. I cut out dairy when BFing my eldest as I thought he was reacting to it and found it so hard! I lost a lot of weight very quickly too. Not saying formula should be prescribed just in case though - just trying to balance the argument that BFing is the answer to everything in this instance.

My DD couldn't breastfeed. She had low muscle tone and couldnt stay latched on. Tried for a year. Expressed 99% of her milk for year

What does atopic mean?

A predisposition to allergies. I have allergies, both my DDs were atopic, and developed multiple allergies.

donor breastmilk would be a better choice surely?

Both my husband are both atopic. He has asthma and eczema. I have asthma eczema and hayfever. Our son has severe eczema so far. Our specialist ( consultant dermatologist with specialism in paediatrics) was not interested in changing his formula and he wasn't allergy tested until he got to 7 months and we had begun the weaning process. Apart from an initial reaction to wheat he has so far shown no food allergies. All his allergy tests came back negative. Incidentally he is no longer allergic to wheat - it was just his system reacting to it the first time we gave it to him.
Atopic tendencies are rarely to do with food and it would be irresponsible to diagnose allergies before they appear. Also allergies are complex things and can come and go.

Parents should provide 'food' for their child

so should they also provide food for themselves?

just in ops situation though, so not an atopic baby, just one with atopic parents, so if (is it?) nhs advice is to bf if you have allergies, then bm would be fine. tbh i am just assuming 'atopic parents' are advised to bf as op is talking about ff as an emergency few days measure

Ok op , so what is the back story ?
There must be one and I can't see it .

I'm going to disagree with atopic tendencies rarely being to do with food; I can't think of a single person I know, with food allergies, who hasn't got at least one child with food allergies.

sanfairy There's a huge shortage of donor breast milk. It is generally kept for very very poorly babies. (I'm a donor.)

Our local hospital does not provide formula milk for newborns. There have been various stories of dads being phoned up at 3 am to go to the 24 hour tesco and drop it off at the ward when mum gets panicked in the middle of the night.

I'm not a fan of this. (I'm very very pro breast feeding.) Firstly because the baby is a patient and so should be fed. They fed my babies (admittedly secondhand via me scoffing my weight in toast and jam) and a bottle fed baby is not a second class citizen. Secondly because all the planning-to-breastfeed mums in my antenatal class heard the 3am story, were horrified and decided to take formula in with them "just in case" which seemed counter productive to me.

It depends how you define atopic tendencies - which I thought were related to the asthma, eczema spectrum - these a rarely related to food

A baby in this situation would benefit most from breastmilk. However if that isn't possible, the next stage would be to attempt normal formula, it would not be appropriate to give specialist formula prophylactically. If baby is found to have an allergy, then they will require formula on prescription.

My youngest required a specialist formula when I stopped bf at 4 months. I got it free on prescription, and was told it costs £30 a tub. I felt I should have been buying it from the chemist for around the same price as standard formulas - I shouldn't have to pay £30 a tin but I also shouldn't have got it free.

My DD's eczema and suspected asthma are almost certainly related to her food allergies.

My DS's eczema is definitely dairy related.

I agree actually, MissDuke. I think doctors would be far less reluctant to prescribe specialist formulas if it was policy to ask for a contribution towards the cost, even if it was just what they'd pay for normal dairy formula.

I've been warned not to stop breastfeeding because they'll do everything they can to avoid prescribing me formula. I have no plans to stop anyway despite how much I miss cheese [sigh], but the threat was ominous. I know many mothers who had to battle and appeal to get it for their babies, they'd have been happy to contribute.

The problem with talking about breastfeeding and formula is that people always very naturally get defensive about their own experiences. I am going to deliberately not tell you all how I fed my babies. They were fed. End of.

Leaving all personal experience aside we should be able to agree to ASPIRE to have the vast majority of babies as breastfed because it's what both mum and baby are built to deal with. We should ASPIRE to have not one single new mum told she hasn't enough milk, must top up etc when there is no medical cause. It is a fact of feeding babies in this country that breast feeding is continually undermined by poor or non existent advice, unrealistic maternal expectations and by too frequent weighing. That is what we should be aspiring to and we will never get there if we carry the baggage of our own experience with us.

To answer the Op's question - no the children of parents with allergies should not be given specific formula 'just in case'. The default position should be to expect to feed those babies through breastfeeding which properly supported may well see a decrease in the overall burden of allergies.

Food allergies can cause both asthma and eczema; my mother nearly killed me with cake containing butter, she'd run out of dairy free margarine and thought I wouldn't notice the top up with butter.

My lungs definitely noticed

FWIW food allergies in my DDs and I cause urticaria, asthma, eczema, severe stomach problems and anaphylaxis, depending upon which little nasty we've ingested.

It's all very well saying to take your own in, and I think if you've made that decision fine.

However, allowances have to be made for people that get very ill during child brith, or for some reason change their mind as they might not have formula

Then I would have thought it's a conversation to have with staff if there are concerns with the brands used?

Ds2 was in nicu, all our dcs have allergies and particularly so with cmp. I tried to express but couldn't get enough so they wanted to top up his tube feeds and gave us the choice of aptamil, cow and gate and sma. Due to ds1 and dd2 being on neocate at the time we asked for that.

The nurse told us "don't worry we don't give the babies cows milk we give them baby milk!" I was horrified she didn't realise formula was based on cows milk. We insisted on neocate and were told they would ask the doctor.
Later on we heard the dr saying "no, its a cost issue they can't have neocate we will top up with formula" I said " are you speaking about us?" She replied " I didn't realise it was you that had asked for a different formula, I thought it was the other parents (and pointed to a couple outside the doors) I'm sorry we cannot give your baby neocate"
Ds had a top up that night with sma and by morning had gone downhill, I expressed what I could and he picked up but same happened that night with sma. My milk came in and he needed no more formula top ups.
We found out five months later he too had a cmp allergy so yanbu hypoallergenic formula should be available.

If you want the NHS to randomly hand out expensive stuff to patients who may not even need it anyway then we all need to be prepared to pay massively inflated contributions. Or do you just want special treatment for the one issue that affects you?

The NHS has very clear guidelines on diagnosis and treatment of allergies which I would suggest are far better than this suggestion

This question wasn't about who should pay for the formula. It also isn't about whether breastfeeding or formula feeding is best or not.

The question is: the midwives are going to give your baby formula for ONE day because despite the colostrum you have given her via syringe, she is jaundiced and has her no energy [insert any other illness]. Before they do that, should they ask you if you and/or your husband are atopic, and if you are both atopic, then they should offer you the option to give the baby hypoallergenic formula (which you can pay for if you want to give, let's just say for theory's sake)?

The above happened to me, and had I known that my baby had a 80% chance of allergies, I would have very happily paid for the hypo formula, whatever the cost. I am disappointed that I wasn't told about it. (I did go on to EBF after hospital)