To ask how I get my LO to accept his prescription formula?

[BumbleNova]

Posting here for traffic - I'm getting desperate!

My LO has CMPA and is also allergic to soya and coconut. He is 5 months now and has been EBF so far. He has been happily taking a bottle of expressed milk until we offered him a bottle of his special formula (Alfamino) and he went on a complete bottle strike 🤦‍♀️. Arrgh.

I've been trying to get him back into just taking a bottle of expressed milk this week. It's been a mixed bag. We have tried all sorts of bottles. Some days it's a complete refusal. Some days he will take max 2 ounces and then wait for me to reappear...

I really want to stop breastfeeding. I've loved it but I've lost so much weight because my diet is ridiculous (I'm also a coeliac). I've started a bit of weaning as per his paediatric allergy specialist, just root veg and some fruit.

Do I wait til he is screaming with hunger? Or do I offer it when we are both calm? Does anyone have any tips? We have tried 50 50 mix with expressed milk and that was a big fat no.

I heard that those formulas are really unpleasant so sometimes it’s advised to mix in strawberry flavouring. Let me look for a link...

I was told to add a drop of vanilla extract when DS wouldn’t drink Aptamil Pepti. Never heard of adding strawberry flavouring.

Try it warmer than blood temp.

Will he take the bottle from someone else instead of you? Personally I'd try that for a few days if you can to get DC used to the bottle.

Agree with others that the formula probably tastes pretty rank compared to breast milk.

Keep pushing on with weaning. My two only ever had the absolute minimum of milk because of reflux. I weaned them both early and they both flourished with it.

pad.res360.net/Content/Documents/Infant%20Formulae%20Guidelines%20v1%200%2030%20May%2017-%20Final.pdf

Here - page 8 talks about flavouring if necessary.

I've just started trying my 9mo on formula as I'm desperate to stop bf, however he won't take it at all. Just screws his face up and spits it out. Takes bottles all the time so it's definitely the milk he doesn't like. He eats a huge amount and variety of solids and I'm wondering whether to just phase the milk out slowly. @fatted what age did yours stop taking any milk?

Sorry op I know that's no help to you

We have a 10 week old bottle refuser on nutragimen allergy milk too. It's a battle of wills every day to get him to drink anything near the bear minimum. He hasn't been breastfed since the first week though, the bottle refusal/lack of appetite has been building up for weeks. His silent reflux is at least under control now though.

We've just started dream feeding him wherever possible (he still wakes many times each night - not surprising since his belly is never more than half full at best!). Any time he goes to sleep with a dummy, we gently lift him him up and switch the dummy for the bottle, and he'll take another ounce or two this way until he fully wakes up or stops suckling.

Maybe try dream feeding just to get it in, and he may eventually get used to it? I've not tried flavouring the milk as I don't believe it's about the flavour for us. I have head of people doing it with vanilla extract though.

I found the first (cheapest) brand i was prescribed was impossible to get down DS but i went back and asked for aptamil which is much less offensive to smell so must be nicer.

However it still took ages for DS to take it, he was 1 at the time so less of an issue but there was defo a period of 2+ weeks where he had no milk whatsoever. I just kept offering it and after a month he was having it normally. I was giving him abidec vitamins to tide him over too.

I had a battle with the cheap milk substitute and insisted they prescribed aptamil which dd took much better. The first milk smelled like rotten potatoes

Doesn't Aptamil contain dairy? If yes - there is no way I can give him that! He would end up in A&E!

Thanks for the tips so far- I've not heard of strawberry.

@merryoldgoat what type of flavouring? Like milkshake flavours?

@liland he takes a bottle from my husband at 11 ish but only 2 ounces and then feeds properly when we swap over. He is too flipping bright for his own good! He is new to a dummy too so I don't want to do too much at once.

My DD is on alfamino (luckily she loves it, she hates anything sweet) but the hospital gave us a couple of tips incase she didn't: a drop of vanilla extract, or to change it slowly over a couple of days so say you are making a 5oz bottle, to 4oz expressed, 1oz alfamino, then increase the alfamino over a few days. If you are weaning you could put a little in the puree (if that's what you're doing) as well so he gets used to the taste. Good luck!

@lokihasafryingPan thanks - I'll try some vanilla. And have another attempt at smuggling it in.

Yes - like milkshake flavours.

Doesn't Aptamil contain dairy? If yes - there is no way I can give him that!

I didn’t say Aptamil, I said Aptamil Pepti. Which is a hydrolysed formula and can be used for CMPA.

Problem is that it’s hydrolysed and alfamino is completely dairy free. We still had reactions to Aptamil pepti.
Luckily my LO loves alfamino (how i dont know?! It smells and tastes absolutely revolting) but we were also given a vanilla essence tip

Having had a child with a CMPA I know this, he ended up on Neocate. But let’s nit pick shall we, and ignore my suggestion of vanilla extract which was my point. 🙄

In fairness some prescription milk smells rank - I imagine it doesn't taste good - and he's old enough to know what the 'nice' stuff tastes like

My son used to like his bottles a lot warmer than the suggested temperature (don't worry I didn't scald him or anything) but whereas his siblings weren't fussy about the temperature he was

You have my sympathy!!

My breast fed baby was diagnosed as CMPA when he was 9 weeks old. After three weeks of me going dairy free I broke down in tears at my GP surgery because I felt so faint and run fown all the time (due to dietary changes) and asked him for some prescription formula as I couldn’t cope with breast feeding anymore.

Unfortunately, after 3 months of being breast fed my son absolutely refused the milk. He’d never had a bottle before let alone one with foul tasting milk in it and there was no way he was taking it.

We tried repeatedly for weeks but we ultimately had to give up and I had no choice but to remain dairy free and breast feed him.

I have heard lots of success stories though of people having flavoured it with vanilla extract (as has already been suggested on here) so definitely give it a go.

Good luck

We had this. What worked was really gradually mixing it with breastmilk. So 90% BM to start with, then 80%, etc over about 8 weeks. Really tedious but it did work