On Thursday last week my 3 week old ds had a bloody nappy. I don’t mean streaks, dh likened it to a “crime scene.” Absolutely terrifying, the blood was mixed well with the poo in there, but was practically the whole nappy. We took ds to a&e to be checked over.
Ds was diagnosed with CMPA after various blood tests and x-ray to rule anything else out. There is no test to guarantee this is what is wrong, ds only symptoms for cmpa were the blood in the stool, increased gas and struggling to have a bowel movement (straining but nothing happening) he cried more due to this but other than that he was a content and happy boy.
The doctor prescribed nutramigen, which so far we haven’t seen much of a difference in ds behaviour. If anything he seems more unsettled.. I have eliminated dairy from my diet too. The blood in the stool stopped after 2 more bloody poos. The new formula seems to leave ds hungrier than I’ve ever seen him. He has a big appetite and we’ve had to combi feed, from week 1, due to this, my milk did not fill him up ever and he’d continue to hungry cry. We used the same formula since week 1 and no reaction other than those I’ve mentioned and only 2/3 weeks later…. With nutramigen he poos during every feed and with it being an acidic formula he now has a rash on his bum that looks so sore and was not there before the formula change. He was a once/twice a dayer before this. He wakes up when I change him during the night, due to the rash pain I’m guessing and the poo is a strange consistency and difficult to clean off sometimes as it sort of rolls on his skin… it’s a struggle to get him settled again after this.
I guess my concern is that something else is going on and has been diagnosed as cmpa. Baby never went off his milk and was never fussy during feeds, never refused breast or bottle, no rashes, vomiting or coughing etc just the symptoms I mentioned above. I just don’t want anything to be missed by him being diagnosed with this.
All I keep reading online is that cmpa is over diagnosed. Has anyone’s little one been misdiagnosed and what happened? Did they still thrive with the formula change? We’ve used the new formula since it was prescribed and I know it can take up to 4 weeks to see an improvement but this ftm just wants to do right by her baby and he seems more fussy being topped up with the hypoallergenic formula. It is early days so hopefully we will see an improvement in ds soon.
p.s. the look of betrayal from a 3 week old with the first bottle of nutramigen is enough to break mothers heart 🥲
tldr - worried something else/worse is going on with 3 week old ds as was diagnosed with cmpa but had limited symptoms. More unsettled after formula change.