Miserable 8 month old baby - gastro issues?

[surreygirl1987]

I have a lovely cheeky smiley little 8 month old boy but he's miserable most of the time and whines moans and whinges on and off pretty much all day... hes been like this since 1 week old so its not a new thing. I'm at my wit's end and wonder if anyone has experienced a trying similar.

We suspect gastro issues. Since he was 8 days old he seemed uncomfortable and strained when pooping and acted constipated though his stools were always soft. He screamed most of his early weeks and was so hard to nap from 8 days old. He was exclusively breastfed for his first 7 months of his life but his stools were always explosive and full of loads of mucus. He was even put on ranitadine for 6 months which I think did absolutely nothing. His weight has always been brilliant (91st percentile following his curve beautifully) so it took ages to be taken seriously. It was suggested that he had a dairy allergy. Over time i troed various eliminatipn diets, eventually a total eliminatipn doet (I only ate 4 foods for 2 weeks). Mucus and misery still remained. After seeing a paediatrician and a gastro in the hospital i was convinxed ti move on to an amino acid formula (Puramino). So I stopped breastfeeding a month ago. We had 2 blissful weeks where he was happy and had no mucus and I thought he was 'fixed'. Then he cut two teeth, got a cold and a double ear infection and has been miserable the past two weeks plus the mucus has returned. I think he's better now but he's still miserable and whining all the time. Plus he only poops around once every 3 days on average so I think he's getting backed up. We were told to stop his solids while we trialled formula and reintroduce one food at a time really slowly. We're currently stuck on just baby rice as symptons returned and we've been told to try the next food when his symptons have gone. But he's so miserable, clearly not right, and now in the last couple of days he's been refusing the bottle (he transitioned to formula brilliantly and has been fine bottle feeding for the past month!!). He's also losing weight- just 0.1kg a week, over the past 2 weeks. I'm really worried about him. I'm back at work soon and I can't believe we're still trying to work out what's wrong with him. He is seeing healthcare professionals but appointments are few and far between and just don't seem to help at all... nobody seems to know what to do :(
Can anyone please help? It's so tough seeing my little boy struggling like this and I'd give absolutely anything to help him but I just don't know how. It's really getting me down too. If anyone has had any similar experience with their child please get in touch!

Sending you . It sounds really tough.

I'm not an expert but didn't want to read and run. I would be very tempted to start more solids again though, just plain things that are unlikely to trigger reactions... vegetables like sweet potato, carrots, butternut and fruits like pear etc. Only because I imagine that if nothing else he must be very hungry at the moment if he's also refusing his bottles, I don't feel like at 8 months milk alone is enough anymore anyway.

I really recommend Biogaia probiotic drops for any baby with allergy/gastro issues. My son was very much the same and they really helped.

I’d also think about using more food, but I wouldn’t bother with baby rice at this stage. I’m actually quite a fan of it and it gets a bad rep, but it has its uses. However it’s not really “doing” much at this stage. Something like sweet potato or porridge oats would probably be better. Have you tried any alternative milks with his babyrice that maybe you could use with porridge?

Have you seen a Dietitian yet? They can be really helpful, but not always very quick to get seen it seems.

Many thanks both. Yes, seen a dietician (was seen within 2 weeks of referral!), a paediatric allergy specialist and a gastroenterologist, plus an ultrasound on his tum, blood sample tests and stool samples.
We have, under allergy specialist's advice, just started trying egg today. Rice was the advice given by the HPs by the way- I didn't bother with it when we first started weaning as I know it's not nutrious and also potential arsenic issue... but they said as I started with fruit and veg last time (and the gastro guy said it could be a fructose issue) it would be an easy starting point this time as it could be mixed with water (can't use alternative milk yet as needs to be a one food every 3 days trial) and there would be no risk of confusion about nappy symptons with undigested food. Allergist now wants to trial a few 'top allergy' items, a new one every 3 days, until symptons return.
Thanks for suggestion re probiotics. Yes - We tried Optibac for months. I have heard good things about Biogaia but didn't go for it because it's a different strain of bacteria than thst which is supposed to be best for helping with non-ige allergies and the like? We moved on to Culturelle however, as apparently Optibac isn't suitable for milk.allergy sufferers so didn't want to risk it any longer. Gastro doc said probiotics CAN be brilliant if you get the bacteria you need, but it's a bit pot-luck and the wrong one for an individual can actually cause SIBO so I'm a bit scared to try again!
The good news though is that he's had more milk today, in addition to his egg. I think now it is his teeth bothering him - even though a pair sprung up a few days ago I'm now wondering if there's another pair on the way! Took him to heath clinic yesterday about it and they said that his weight loss isn't concerning- it's so slight it's more of a plateau and that they wouldn't even worry if he dipped under his percentile line at the moment. So that was reassuring. Thanks anyway for getting back to me though. I knew it was a long shot asking if anyone was experiencing the same issues! 🤷‍♀️