Cmpa improvement?

[MumsgotoIceland]

How long after formula change/elimination diet did it take for you to see an improvement in your little one?

Combi feeding ds and have cut out all dairy from my diet and was prescribed nutramigen. The first couple of days he seemed to be doing slightly better. We’ve been doing this for 2 weeks now and he still cries in pain with what I imagine is tummy pain, now having blood and mucus in his poo (which we didn’t have before) we had 1 very bloody nappy which is how he was diagnosed at a&e, but no other symptoms before that he has also just started crying at the boob and bottle but with encouragement will still feed.

Been to gp since changing everything and he completely dismissed my concerns that ds wasn’t improving. I know they say it can take 2-4 weeks but it’s so hard to watch him struggle. Do I go back to the gp and demand a second opinion regarding formula change ? Or hold out till 4 weeks is up. HV was no help when called regarding this either.

It took me about 2 weeks for the symptoms to go after cutting out dairy from my diet but I was steadily improving each day.

I can never remember if that formula is hydrolysed milk or is an Amino one?

Have you spoken to Allergy UK too? That might help worth doing before you speak to the GP again

It’s a hydrolysed formula that he’s currently on. Thinking we may have to switch to amino acid though.

Maybe I was expecting too much too quickly. I think we saw small improvement early but then symptoms started creeping back. I will definitely do that, thank you for your response x

4-6 weeks til I seen a significant improvement it seems baby was left with gut inflammation after. I’d say don’t hesitate to get onto the amino acid formula I regret not moving over quicker x

Thank you, we’re 2.5 weeks in so maybe I need to be more patient. Some days he’s good and other days it’s like we’re back to square one. I’ve got the health visitor coming on Wednesday so hopefully they will be able to help getting our gp to listen. Thank you x

Have you cut soya from your diet as 50% of CMPA babies are also allergic to soya too?

Have you tried switching to formula only? We saw a vast improvement within days of switching to nutramigen

Just a note, Althéra and nutrimagen didn’t improve baby at all (Infact I’d go as far to say made things worse) so bare that in mind if you’re changing over

I didn’t see any improvement with the hydrolysed formula, only with the amino acid formula. It’s worth considering other allergens; two of my kids were also allergic to soya and egg.

I’ve not done this no as the formula he is having has soy oil in it. My supply isn’t enough for him despite me triple feeding so dropping formula completely wouldn’t be an option for me. This is what I tried explaining to the gp but he wouldn’t listen. I’m hoping the hv can help me further on Wednesday. Thank you x

I think it’s getting to the point I will have to stop bf or just pumping for a while to see if there is a difference. I’m worried ds may be reacting to something else too that could be coming from me. Thank you x

I have read a lot of babies still react to nutramigen as it still contains cmp it’s just more broken down. I spoke to the gp about moving to amino acid formula and he said we don’t need to 🤦🏻‍♀️ I think after 2.5 weeks we’d know whether there was some improvement or not. Will speak to hv on Wednesday and go back to go if I need to. Thank you x

This is my worry as I’ve seen a lot of mums say this! I’m worried ds is reacting to something else in my diet but I can’t be sure if he’s still reacting to cmp in the formula or me. I may just start eliminating more from my diet and see if that helps things. Thank you x

The top six food allergens are dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish. It shouldn’t be too difficult to cut these out for a couple of weeks to see whether it makes a difference. Where a baby has dairy allergy, the mother often has to cut out soya as well. Products containing soya lecithins should be okay as this is a fat that comes from soya and doesn’t contain the protein. The potential issue is that, if your child is reacting to the nutramigen, then this may somewhat mask any improvements from eliminating allergens in your diet.

Is there anything you can do to increase your milk supply so you aren’t as dependent on the formula? I would definitely recommend continuing with the breastfeeding if you can. When my DS4 was 12 months old, the GP stopped his Neocate prescription and said I had to give shop-bought dairy alternative milk instead so I was very glad that I had been combi-feeding as at least my baby was still getting some nutrition from breastmilk. We switched to Oatly Barista for his bottles and Oatly Cream for his cereal but they don’t contain much vitamins or minerals.

Well I don’t eat fish, shellfish and haven’t eaten any form of nut since ds was born 5.5 weeks ago. Will have to check ingredients for eggs going forward as I don’t eat them unless they’re baked into something. Thank you for I that! This is what I’m struggling with, I don’t know whether to pump to keep what little supply I have and just not give it to ds, or switch to formula all together. I would prefer to keep combi feeding and don’t want to stop breast feeding if I can.

I tried triple feeding for 2 weeks, as per lactation consultant recommendation, and it didn’t really increase an awful lot, the most I’ve ever got from pumping is 4oz (both sides combined) and he feeds more than that every time. I don’t have the support at home to sustain it as dh is at work, so it’s just me and my son at home. My mental health was struggling as I felt like I was spending more time doing all of that than spending quality time with baby.
Thank you x

With my youngest, I barely got any milk when expressing, even though my supply was okay. I had issues at first as he was a preemie delivered by c-section. Power pumping massively increased my supply, almost to the point of oversupply. I went on to exclusively breastfeed to six months then he was combi fed until 18 months. It can be really difficult to keep breastfeeding but I think it’s worth persevering if possible with babies with CMPA since the amino acid formulas are so heavily processed and you’re reliant on being able to get prescriptions.

If you do want to continue BFing I’d recommend reading this article from Kellymom and speaking to one of the BFing Helplines about maintaining your supply whilst Combi-feeding.

This article on low supply might be useful too. That doesn’t mean I think you have low supply, it just explains supply very well and normal baby behaviour

When lo was diagnosed with cmpa I stopped bf immediately and we were prescribed sma althera. She improved drastically within a few days. Until we started weaning when the allergy symptoms all came back. Turns out she was also allergic to soya and that is an unexpected ingredient in a lot of foods. (Many Breads for example). I have had to be ultra vigilant with checking ingredients. She's nearly 3 now and was diagnosed with cmpa at 6 weeks old. It was hell for those 6 weeks and I really had to push with the GP to take me seriously, luckily health visitor was on side and pushing with me. 2.5 years on I can still remember that first night with no symptoms - the relief and surprise at how different she was now that she wasn't in constant tummy pain.

I'm Currently having a cuddle with my 3 week old little boy who shows no signs of allergies and the difference is huge. You have my sympathy - allergies are tough and GPs seem very blase about it. Keep pushing op.