Nutramigen/Eczema child weening to solids

[bairdy]

Hi all...

Here's a quick question, followed by the whole story for those that have the time to read it!...

Quick question:
Our dd was prescribed Nutramigen after frequent (after every feed) mucas filled diarrhea (with small specs of blood in it) suggested a milk intolerance.

She's now nearly 5 months, and we would like to start giving her solids, as we suspect this will be a long process of trial and error.

We wanted the advice of an allergy specialist, but to get appointment is taking months, and keeps getting postponed. Any advice for weening them onto solids? (She is our 2nd child, so advice with respect to allergies most appreciated).

Full Story:
Our dd was a very happy child for the first 6 weeks (breastfed) although had moderate eczema (as does mum). During a very heavy cold - when her feeds were getting all messed up - we moved her on to formula. She had a lot of mucus / diarrhoea- but at first, put this down to the cold.

Her discomfort continued, particularly after feeds, and she woke herself up at night when pooing, and generally became a very unhappy baby. Doctors did nothing until eventually small bright specs of blood appeared in poos. Eventually we found a pediatrician who recognised this as a milk intolerance and prescribed nutramigen.

Poos improved overnight, no blood, better consistency.

Been on nutramigen now for about 6 weeks (dd now 5 months old)... eczema has not cleared up (although better than it's worse point), sometimes she feeds well, other times she's doesn't - poos seem to change consistency frequently. Sometimes we feel it's working, and sometimes we don't - in short, we are finding it very difficult to keep track of any consistency to her reactions.

Appointments are taking an age to get with allergy specialists, and we would like to start trying solids - any advice on this, or any other aspect? It took us so long to find a doctor who realised the blood was down to allergy - that we are getting frustrated by the other doctors who seem unable to offer any constructive advice!

Thanks for any help you can give...

i wouldn't start solids early with a child who has an allergy.
much better to give her gut plenty of time to mature properly before you start introducing other stuff to her diet.

there is no reason not to wait until 6 months and then do a very gradual introduction to solids.
you might want to look into baby-led weaning, I've heard it suggested that babies with allergies naturally avoid foods that they react to, so by letting her control her intake you would hopefully have a more successful go at weaning

The advice is to wait until 6 months to wean,particularly if allergy is suspected.

good weaning schedule here

My Ds is severely allergic to dairy and also had a milder allergic reaction to Nutramigen as it still contains milk protein. Your DD could still be reacting to it.

You could ask to try Neocate instead which is completely free of milk protein.

You could try Neocate or otherwise Nutramigen AA which is also free of cows milk protein (this is a new product). Nutramigen AA tastes similar to standard Nutramigen and therefore if your dd is already used to that taste this might be easier to get her to accept.

With respect to weaning, go with foods with low allergenicity at first and avoid common allergens until she is at least 9 months or possibly even a year especially eggs (commonly dairy allergic children are also egg allergic) and fish. Go careful with soya as many dairy allergic children are allergic to this too and no nuts until at least 3 years old. I also tend to follow the rule of introducing a new food and allowing at least 3 days before introducing something new again. Firstly this allows you to pinpoint things that cause a reaction but also it prevents the immune system going into a "hyper-alert" state and reacting to lots of stuff.

Thank you everyone for your comments.... really helpful and much appreciated... taken all advice on board, will hold off from solids for a bit and will try the other milks suggested.

Does anyone know if the blood in stools when dd was on regular formula suggested colitis, or is colitis just one version of many similar allergy related problems - it was only described to us as a 'milk intolerance' to us - but is this the same thing? Would be handy to know, just so we can read up more about it...

Thanks again...

braidybunch (formerly known as bairdy!)

Blood in stools is apparently common with milk allergy/intolerance. DS2 got this whilst exclusively BF as reacting to milk in my diet .

Hi,

I think you need to read up about Milk allergy and not milk intolerance as these are 2 different things. My daughter has an allergy to milk, eggs, nuts, bananas and fish, so I know what you have been through.

She too had the specs of blood, but she would also get a red rash around the mouth after trying to give her the bottle. With us, we did not even get her to drink any, because the reaction was just so obvious. When she went onto the nutramigen her eczema almost dissapeared!

when you start your dd on solids, i would advise that you avoid, eggs, fish, nuts. You could also avoid wheat as this is also an allergen. When you do want to give your dd these things, introduce them one at a time so you can monitor the results.

good luck

Has she been tested for Coeliac?

DS is on Nutramigen as is milk intolerant, but his symptoms disappeared quickly...

what is Nutramigen AA?

There is no point testing for coelaic disease until a child has been exposed to gluten, preferably for a few months (sooner if symptomatic) A child who is just on milk or hypo allergenic formula will test negative.

Nutramgen AA is a new formula based on amino acids rather than short chain peptides and designed for the super allergic chld. Unfortunatly the futher a protein is broken down from whole protein to peptides to amino acids so the taste becomes stonger and stronger.

If you are waiting too long for an allergy referal, my suggestion would be to ask for a freferal to a specilist paediatric dietitan at your local hospital who should have the expertise to deal with the siuation. Don't be fobbed off with a referal to a dietitian at your local surgery as they are generalists rather than paediatric specialists.

The other route is to ask to see a paediatric gastroenterologist, most district general hospitals will have at least one paediatritian who has a special interest in gastroenterology. The wait is likely to be much sorter than waiting for an allergy referfal. Make sure any allergist has a paediatric background as in my opinion those who see mostly adults are not going to be much help to you.

The 6 to 10 month window is so imporant when weaning and getting a baby to accept mew flawours and textures you don't want to be stuck on formula waitng for a referal.

It sounds like your DD has cows milk collitis, which may be an allergic reaction localised to the gut, or may become a more generalised milk allergy affecting other systems.

Hi, I have started a new group which is for parents dealing with allergies, Reflux, colic and skin problems. Most of us including myself and aother mentor member Kirsty have gone or are going through exactly the same thing at the moment asn would love to share and help if we can.

I read your post and think it may be of interest to you to have a look and hopefully join. It is a new site and open to make better so any input you have on the site will help others too. We have a few memtor members who are ready to help you settle in and welcome you and have files and links to intresting topics and items.

It has a recipe page where we can upload great things we have tried and the more people we encourage to use the site the better it will become. Files and links to articles and info as well as things we rate.

I hope this is of some use to you please use this link and to join click on the purple button and I will aprove you membership when I get it through.

Hope to speak soon Michelle
groups.yahoo.com/group/reflux-baby-you-are-not-alone/

Thanks everyone for all your help and information... we're starting the Nutramigen AA milk today, and hope this may be another step forward... fingers crossed. This site has been a real help... we'll be back with updates!

Hi my first child was ok weaned at 6 months no problem
child number two was ok for two weeks and then had green poos, sickness, rash, temp you name it doctor said probably allergic to dairy as my brother was so i went on a soya diet and referred to hospital, no better so then advised to cut soya out so went on rice milk she was a lot better only had heartburn and reflux to contend with. But hospital advised us to wean early as nutramigen occasionaly and me was not enough.
child number three thought was ok but mentioned to health visitor at 6 week check up that only did poos never a wee and slept for 6 hours and excema yep she has a different reaction to sister but allergic to diary and soya. so me and rice milk are best buddies again. Weaned her early and she loves every thing i give her although now is difficult if she has an upset tummy to work out who ate the offending thing, she appears to not like kiwi. my health visitor has b een an angel so ask yours.

Hi everyone.....

Thank you again for all your comments. Well we eventually started nutramigen AA just over a week ago! Yes over a week late than expected as where they get their stock from they had completely run out! It is definately better than just nutramigen as her poos seem to be more of a mustard colour than a grey green gloss paint look! Sorry for the graphical description! She also seems to have more colour to her cheeks as before looked very pale.

I have found though this week the milk is not enough and she is waking up needing a feed at 3am, plus teething i feel i need to wean. She is 6 months on wednesday so if i start this weekend that should be ok? I though of banana, pear, sweet potato, parsnip, butternut squash and carrot to start with? I was wandering how to go about it with my DD as my first i started her at 5 months as worried she'd have allergies but she doesn't. Should it be eg banana and give that to her for 3 days then if not reaction try something new on the 4th? should i try weetabix or just keep to organix babyrice? For a milk substitute was going to give her rice milk when she was a bit older.

Oh it is so hard to know whether you are doing it right even when its your 2nd!

Best wishes

Braidybunch x

Hi bairdy,
That's great that things seem to have improved on Nutramigen AA.

Earlier on in the thread, I posted a schedule which gives a guide when it's safe to try each type of food. For wheat it recommends waiting until 10 months, but the rest of what you have said sounds fine for 6 months.

You should be fine starting this weekend if you feel she is ready for solids.

Good Luck!!!

Thanks trixymalixy for help and the weaning schedule. Very helpful. Just one question when introducing each type of food do i do one new food a day or do i do for example introduce apple and give that to her for 3 days then on 4th day introduce eg carrot and so on?

Thanks

AcademicMum - Could you say a bit more about the 'hyper alert' state you mention? How long does the immune system normally take to calm down? (I think my son may have this problem at the moment - he's reacted to lots of things that seemed to be fine last week.)

Thanks

Hi there

What they normally say as i have allergies/intolerences too is cut out what you think is reacting and then give it a week if not 2 and then introduce the food/s 1 at a time but leave it 3 days between each one? Some people say to if for instance its wheat - cut it out for 2 wks then have a day of it eg eat 3 things with wheat in through out the day- so weetabix, pasta and then sandwich.

Hope that helps

RMB, sorry I wasn't ignoring your post - I only just saw it! This type of 'hyper-alert' state is where if your body has had a reaction to something, your immune system is more kind of primed and ready to react so if you start introducing a ton of new stuff immediately after you've had a reaction, you may be more likely to start reacting to other things as well (which you may not have reacted to under normal circumstances). We were warned not to introduce new foods in the immediate period after ds2 reacted to milk for precisely this reason.

I think a few days to a week should be enough for the system to calm down again.