Baby won't drink CMPA milk

[Nicolalouise9319]

Hi, I really need some help. My baby started with loooooads of mucus poos, screaming in pain, dropping weight and a slight red rash during feeding at 12 weeks old. The doctors have suggested he has CMPI and although he is mainly breastfed, I top him up with formula when needed as i dont produce enough breast milk! We've been prescribed Aptimel pepti 1 milk and he physically shudders when I've offered it to him and won't drink it. He spits it out and pulls a face.
How can I help him drink this milk whilst we try our this new dairy free way of living? Any suggestions would be so helpful.

Did they suggest adding Nesquik or alcohol free vanilla essence? They're usually the two easiest ways of getting them to try it.

It might be worth going along to your local BFing Supoort Group to see if they can work with you to increase your supply

If you try to pump between feeds and have lots of skin to skin you can increase your milk supply . You would have to go dairy free as well but I assume you already are . It’s possible to go back to fully breastfeeding (if you want to) as the allergy formulas are foul

Even the smell of it is horrible so I don't blame him to be honest! Thank you. I'm just worried about what will do in the meantime if I'm not able to increase my supply cause I don't want him going hungry!
Really appreciate the help 😊

Oh this is really hard. I would suggest trying to increase supply but I know how hard it can be (sister didn't manage it unfortunately). La Leche league have lots of advice. Eating oats can help (flapjack and porridge made without dairy of course). Absolutely no idea what to do in the interim, I'd suggest donated breast milk but you can't guarantee dairy free. Could you pump some and mix it in? Or use different bottles/teats? Or express a little and rub it on the teat. I found using a Hakka whilst breastfeeding more successful than regular pumping.

We had the same. The formula smelt like fish guts.

I went dairy free and breast fed and expressed milk to bottle feed.

Have you given up dairy? I used oat milk, substituted butter with pure spread. I gave up cheese at vegan cheese sucks.

You have to check all labels as dairy pops up in some breads, biscuits, crisps, gravy etc

Also if you are concerned about supply. Family hubs offer breastfeeding support groups.

I was a bf peer support worker. Most of the time it's poor latch causing supply issues. You could ask a worker to observe a feed. To boost your supply offer regular feeds and pump in between. Or if you can juggle it at the same time.

Was the article I linked to of any use as well?

@Nicolalouise9319 ask the go to prescribe a different milk, alternatively boots normally do a range of CMP free milks. Might be worth trying a few and seeing what he does warm to and then ask for that on prescription.

Dd hated Aptamil peptil, it was vile. Dd ended up on neocate which was slightly better, but unfortunately none of them smell or taste great.

Thank you everyone! All really helpful advice!
When he was born, he had tounge tie so wouldn't latch so I expressed and bottle fed and found it so exhausting!! Don't know if I can go back to it haha but if it helps him I will do anything at this point! I'm going to try power pumping today and for a few days to see if thay helps! Even if I can get one extra bottle a day I'll be happy!
I definitely think I'll contact the feeding team to see of they can help boost supply as I have gone dairy free myself (which is harder than I thought haha so many things contain milk that I wasn't aware of!)
Thank you for the link! There aren't many groups in my immediate area but I don't mind travelling a little so it's okay!

I had the same, I pumped between feeds for three months which got supply up and then exclusively breastfed him for two years which is when they recommend letting them have dairy free milks (you have to cut out dairy too) What I would say as the parent of a child who is still dairy free at four is that unless the symptoms are severe and you and the doctors are certain it’s CMPA I wouldn’t go dairy free it’s really difficult and my child is now anaphylactic to milk, I do wonder if we had kept it in his diet would he not have such a severe allergy

Eat lots of oats! That boosts supply

I have the same issue OP except my DS isn’t breastfed. We have been mixing with his usual formula and have got it down to about 20% old formula now. We also use a thickener as it’s watery otherwise.

My daughter only accepted the allergy formula when I stopped breastfeeding cold turkey unfortunately. Although for us the bottle was a bigger barrier than the flavour as she would accept it in food occasionally. She was 10 months when we made the switch from breastfeeding to formula

You could try mixing it with regular formula for a day or two whilst

Just before warned the formula you have been given still contains dairy and if the allergy reaction is coming from your breast milk and not just the formula top up you are likely to need a completely dairy free formula such as neocate or alfamino. These taste even worse just be warned! A lot of the formulas are very thin and we had to thicken as reflux gave my daughter a feeding aversion when breastfeeding

If you've already had Tongue tie cut, have you had it checked again to make sure it hasn't reattached.

These are the symptoms of CMPA

And these are the symptoms of Tongue Tie

As you can see, they are very similar and I think it might be worth seeing a Lactation Consultant who specialises in Tongue Ties.

Hi everyone!! All really helpful and interesting to read everyone's experiences.

We've had him weighed today and he's dropped another percentile since last month but is putting weight on just slowly. The HV team werent very helpful at all surrounding any of this so i rang the infant feeding team for the area i live in and the infant feeding specialist is coming to visit us next week at home so I'm hoping she can help with some advice and look at him feeding to see if this is an issue.
I pumped twice today so far and got 1.5 oz after feeding so hopefully can build up a bit of a supply!
@PolaroidPrincess oh that's interesting! I'll mention this to the lady coming out next week.
I also spoke to the GP again today and she said unfortunately he has to continue to try this milk for several weeks before they'll do anything (for example, prescribe him a new milk) but in the mean time just keep giving him it. I'm just glad he isn't BF or he'd be bloody hungry!
@Superscientist I'm so sorry about this, I was completely unaware until recently that milk could cause anaphylaxis. My step son has multiple allergies (eggs, nuts, peanuts, dogs, cats, peas to mention the main ones) so I understand how this effects you as a family and how hard it is! Thank you for sharing your experience.