cmpa, neocate and extended breastfeeding

[ruth1104]

My ds is 16 weeks, has cmpa and is ebf. My (bonkers) hv recently suggested i start him on solids "since you're so against formula" because he wakes a lot through the night.. I'm ignoring her, and hoping to leave solids as long as possible (im so worried about what else he might react to..) But its got me thinking about long term milk. I'm not against formula but I hadnt expected to be so pro-bf! I enjoy it, he's gaining plenty of weight and it comforts him when he's not feeling well. From what I've read it can be helpful in protecting from other allergies too. I'm also a bit wary of neocate since from talking to people, it seems difficult to get babies to take and there arent a lot of other options.. It seems like a more difficult path at the moment.

I was considering breastfeeding until he doesnt need milk anymore (never thought i'd say those words!) and wondering what the implications are and what other peoples experiences are. How long do you 'need' to do it before you can get enough fats and calcium in a childs diet? how did it work with working etc? I've been told that if you do want to use neocate its better to introduce it when theyre small so i kind of want to be prepared, but getting him to take an expressed bottle is a headache so I dont want to do it unnecessarily! He had a fairly severe reaction at 3 weeks old so im thinking it might take a while to outgrow. Sorry for the essay!

My ds2 was MSPI ( milk and soya protein intolerant) and I breastfed him for 2 years. I did try to introduce Neocate at about 6m old but never got him to take it. We used calcium enriched Oatly in food from 6m, and when I returned to work at 11m it was offered as a drink. We regularly saw a dietician who as happy with the fat (oil, avocado) and protein ( meat fish eggs) he was getting elsewhere, and he had prescribed liquid calcium and vitamin supplements.
From about 18m he stopped reacting to what I ate, and from about 2 yrs he could tolerate tiny amounts of dairy. He's had a normal diet from 2.5 yrs and now lives on cheese sandwiches.

It is worth thinking about what to do longer term as introducing Neocate to an older baby is not easy ( it is vile ) I'm sure you could do it if you really had to but I know of many people who have struggled. Continuing to breastfeed was the line of least resistance!

That is bonkers advice from your HV ruth, starting on solids at 16 weeks seems way too young to me.

I discovered my DDs allergy to dairy at 6 months when I tried to move from EBF to mix feeding with forumula, she had a huge reaction to forumla and we were prescribed neocate. I wanted to carry on BFing, I hadn't been that serious about stopping just thought I might mix feed when I went back to work, but was advised it was best to give neocate to get the right fats into her diet. I do wonder about this advice but at the time I didn't question it.

It's interesting to hear your experience baking, I was told to go on a restricted diet right away but it sounds as though you got different advice. Amazing that your DS has outgrown the allergies, I desperately hope for cheese sandwiches to be on the menu here one day!

Getting her on to neocate at 6 months was almost impossible as it's so grim. In the end - on our dietician's advice - we resorted to adding a tiny amount of Crusha (that milk shake flavouring) to her neocate. I can't tell you how awful that felt, not the kind of thing I'd ever dreamed of giving her and god knows what people thought when they saw my baby drinking pink milk! Still it worked and we reduced the amount we added pretty rapidly and then she was on straight neocate.

At 12 months we dropped neocate entirely and she went on to oat milk enriched with calicum and occasionally almond milk, I don't give much almond milk as I find it quite sweet.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do.

Ds is CMPI and is two in a few weeks. I'm still bf mainly cos it's easiest! He has soya now but didn't until recently. He has soya milk or hazelnut milk

yeah teapig this is the same hv who, when i went to her about blood in his nappy said, "we'll just keep an eye on it" and who told me to carry on eating whatever i ate while pg despite advice from 3 paeds and the dietitian to avoid dairy while breastfeeding... So we're taking all advice with a pinch of salt. Good to know its possible to avoid the neocate, though i suppose a lot depends on them being good eaters!

My DS is allergic to cow's milk protein. We've been prescribed neocate, but I am still breastfeeding and he's 16 months. I only use the neocate on his cereal because i hate expressing. I avoid dairy and he's totally dairy free and we seem to get along fine - he's never had a bottle and I can't see him ever having a drink of neocate. I LOVE Oatley for myself (and chocolate oatley is lovely!) and he will happily have my cereal with oatley on it so I will swap him over to that soon I think.

My 3 yr old is still bf .
We've always used coconut milk and I do give a calcium supplement.

Can i ask what the signs of cmpi were?

I've recently started to try eliminating dairy from my diet but i'm doing it blindly. I have no idea if ds (7weeks) is cmpi but he's very fussy, terribly gurgly, writhes in what seems to be pain or discomfort during the night and has bad patches of eczema.

The Dr told me it's highly unlikely that he's reacting to anything in my milk and advised against restricting my diet. However, i thought it was worth a try and figured as long as i eat sensibly and healthily it won't do either of us any harm.

How do you know for sure there's an allergy or intolerance? Is it a case of elimination and re-introduction of foods? Or are there more definitive symptoms usually?

hi purple unusually in our case we got a diagnosis quickly as we were sent to a&e by the gdocs when he was 3 weeks old because he had blood in his stools, they were also green and watery and he had a lot of painful wind. In convinced if he hadnt reacted quite so seriously we would have carried on being told he was just colicky and i was eating too many vegetables (that was the hv's line) and he was clearly in pain. Id check out cowsmilkallergysupport.com, theres some good information there on getting a diagnosis

btw if youre trialling cutting out dairy you need to be really thorough, check ingredients on EVERYTHING and stick at it for a few weeks. Its a good idea to cut out soya as well as they are similar proteins - my dietitians advice was soya flour in bread is ok, soya milk etc not ok. I began to see a change after a few days but it took 3weeks for a real improvement. Keep a food diary if youre trying to get a diagnosis, there are tests but theyre not too reliable i think. Also make sure youre taking calcium supplements. Good luck!

sorry - i am the op, name change!