3 month old with formula problem

[Peaches2018]

Hello to all the moms here

Warning: very long post / bit of a rant coming!

I'm in need of some help / advice / ideas for my lil one. He's 12 weeks old and was since birth on Hipp anti reflux. LO had around 6 to 8 full nappies a day, dripping down his legs soaking his socks or going up his back and shoulders. Me to the gp and got told this was normal . Lo had more signs of reflux, throwing up, not settling, farting like crazy, sounding congested all day long. Got told this was all totally normal and actually looked at as if I was crazy because I was worried.

My dh wanted lo on hipp normal formula so lo doesn't have to wait for it to set and it's easier to buy at stores. Lo only drank a few oz instead of his normal 6oz, wasn't settled at all anymore, slept a lot less especially in the afternoon and goodness me the nappy blowouts

We went back to AR formula(lo refused it), then onto SMA lactose free(was told that was better for lo) then had Aptamil pepti 1from gp (worst nr 2s ever) and now Similac Alimentum(with a scoop of Carobel) from gp. Coming Monday I need to tell the gp how the Similac is going and I got no idea what to say Lo is still not really settled/ ready to nap like normal, feeding is taking half an hour for him to finish about 4 oz, his farts stink worse than ever and he still has diarrhoea. He dropped on the percentile chart and I was told that he shouldn't lose any weight if possible (that's why i feed him ever 2 or 2,5 hours). When he was born he lost quite a bit of weight twice in a row and had the hardest time for him to put it on.

Gps have ruled out any infections, say that lactose intolerance is very rare in babies and testing could go both ways: positive when it's negative and negative when it's positive. So helpful
I'm a bit at the end of my line, feeling really horrible to put my lo through this, can't see my HV till half Sept. when lo is weighed again and I'm not sure what to ask for anymore or what to do except cuddle my baby, try to comfort him as much as I can and talk loads while he's feeding to distract him from the smelly nasty formula I try to get him to drink!

Any advice, kind words or I've been there, done that and this helped messages are more than welcome!!

Sounds like cows milk protein is the issue rather than lactose. You maybe need a formula that is not derived from cows milk

I thought the formula / milk I got for him didn't have that
Just finished a cry marathon of almost 20 minutes where he was fighting his sleep / not settle at all

I think that milk has very hydrolysed (broken down) milk proteins so if your lo is very sensitive it could still cause an issue. There are formulas that don't contain any milk proteins but don't know names of them

Thank you dementedpixie I make sure to mention on Monday that I want to try that kind of formula.

Hopefully some other moms who have lil ones on this can comment on how their children are doing on this kind of formula?

You could try posting on the infant feeding topic too

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding

Really?! Thank you very much I'm totally new here to MN and I thought actually that this was the right place to post the question I'll make sure to say hello there too thank you!!

I also though it could be cows milk protein allergy. My son had similar issues. If baby does have a cows milk protein allergy then Lactose-free won't help (Lactose is the sugar in milk and apparently rare for babies to be allergic to it- tends to develop later in childhood).
Try going dairy-free avoiding milk protein and see if it makes a difference. You'll need to ask for the Amino Acid formula.
If you're on FB, look for the CMPA Support page. It's helped me no-end!

Good luck 👍🏻