My baby has cmpa

[Lottie4101]

So my son has been put on neocate at 3 months old for what they believe is cmpa as he keeps having blood in his stools and his stools have been regularly loose and mucusy. Hes on bottle number 3 of it now and hes managing to drink it, but i can tell he definitely isnt a fan of it with the faces he pulls and a bit of fussing. I dont blame him the stuff really stinks i cant imagine it tastes very nice. I know this might sound stupid but im upset right now as i looked into neocate and found something that said 94% of babies who drink neocate are more prone to broken bones, rickets etc. im imagining thats the same as any other hyperallergenic formula as it doesnt have the same nutrients as regular formula would. I know he has to be on this formula now just hoping he grows out of it 😔.

Hi OP. My 18 month old has CMPA. It's so tough, especially at the beginning when they're in pain but hopefully he'll settle on the new formula quickly. I breastfed (so had to cut dairy from my diet) so didn't have the same issues with formula but I've heard it's not the nicest. I joined a few Facebook support groups and there's so much information on there. Might be worth a look to see if there is any chat about formula - I seem to remember some comments about improving the taste but can't remember as it wasn't something I paid close attention to.

It's tough in the beginning but it does get easier. My son weaned really well from six months so you can soon start to introduce nutritious foods. My son started dropping feeds pretty quickly once he started eating well. At 12 months you can introduce oat or soya milk which are fortified with all the vitamins needed. Might be worth looking into baby vitamins in the meantime.

My paediatrician/health visitor also referred me to a dietician ahead of weaning.

We tried the milk ladder at a year and he failed (reacted with reflux) but we've just passed step 1 so I'm hopeful we'll keep going. The health visitor told me most babies outgrow it before age 2 so hopefully this is short term for you.

It can be really overwhelming but it's more common than you think. I met so many mums/babies at baby groups dealing with CMPA and there are several at nursery too so it helped to speak to other people about it. It does get easier!

Thankyou this has made me feel a bit better about the situation. I will definitely look into some baby vitamins and im ringing up the doctors on monday about seeing a dietitian. x

I've just done a bit of reading and the thought is that the phosphate in neocate isn't readily absorbed and this can temporarily increase the risk of rickets. It is reversible and the low phosphate levels were reversed when switched to alfamino another amino acid formula the phosphate levels increased again. All the most recent papers I could find were 2020 and the papers only included a handful of babies. It's hard to draw many conclusions about the risks of this happening. It does seem that there is a risk of this side effect but whether that is most babies that are given neocate or if it's one of those exceptionally rare and unfortunate side effects I couldn't tell. I searched for elemental formulas and rickets.

He should get used to the taste, you can add vanilla or nesquik to it to disguise the taste - speak to your Dr or paediatrician if you want to try this for advice on how. We managed to get my daughter on alfamino at 10 months it was hard at first but she then stayed on it until 2! You could ask about whether alfamino would be better option if you are concerned about rickets. I would have thought there would be more information on it if it was a common side effect. The full side effect list of any product is scary but the real scary ones are usually very uncommon

Some times it's also more beneficial to look at absolute risk rather than increased risk. If 0.1% over babies break a bone and 0.194% of babies on neocate break a bone. That is a 94% increase in risk but both risks are of a similar magnitude going from 1 in 1000 to almost 2 in 1000