SMA White - did it work for you?

[Lamin]

This is my first post! My ds is 13 weeks old and had been sleeping till 4/5 every night then going back off to sleep till 7.30/8 after quick bottle feed. Over the last week he has started waking earlier and earlier and similarly asking for his bottle earlier in the day (we are vaguely following GF. He is showing all the signs of wanting food - watching me eat, hands in mouth, chewing everything etc. Anyway HV recommended SMA white so have changed to this and it seems to have made little difference - in fact last night he woke up at 2.30 had 6 oz and then drained 8oz bottle this am at 7am and was chewing his hands and looking hungry after. he is 14 lb 15 oz. Don't want to wean him early just to get my sleep as I can handle night wake ups for the mo. Interested to know others experience of SMA White and any early weaners if they think it made a diff to their babies sleep/happiness?

Hi Lamin, welcome to Mumsnet!

In a desperate attempt to get my ds (now 2 yrs old) to sleep I tried SMA White at 8 weeks. He was feeding every 2 hours, day and night and I was going mental.

It made absolutley NO difference whatsoever.

I tried weaning him at 12 weeks,but he got constipated. We waiting another 3 or 4 weeks then tried again and he was fine, still didn't make him sleep at night though! His feeds did get down to 4 bottles a day and one at night, which was fab.
It certainly sounds like your ds is ready to start weaning.
Is this your first baby?

In a word - yes
Suggested to me at 9 weeks (14lb) - but we did not follow GF and gave him bottles whenever wanted - got through a lot of bottles but had a contented baby (!) who usually slept through

Could he be teething? i know it's early, but some babies are born with teeth!
That could explain the chewing and early waking. Maybe you could try some Calpol.

Lamin - I too tried the white formula in a desperate attempt to "sort out" my DDs feeding routine that seemed to be spiralling out of control. Very stressful - you have my full sympathy. Personally I found the white didn?t ease hunger completely and was worried that she would put on too much weight as she still wanted the same volume to drink - the white just added calories. I also have a sneaking suspicion that it contributed to bouts of indigestion but could be wrong. One thing I tried was giving my DD a small drink of cooled boiled water first to take the edge off her hunger and then offer a bottle of milk - it did work for me. Not sure how politically correct this method is but my HV at the time seemed to think it was ok.
As for weaning your ds - fairly personal when and how to do this although most of the experts I have read/heard suggest that you leave it as long as possible as early weaning seems to point towards possible health problems in later life - wish I had more detail and facts for you but can?t remember all the details, possibly coeliac disease being linked to this? - maybe someone else will be able to clarify this one. Don?t want to get it wrong and mislead you.

Saying that, we weaned our little one at around 16 weeks and what a difference! She took to it really easily, proving to me that she really was ready for it and suddenly and the sleep problems etc. started to die down.Hang in there,it does get easier!! You will be sharing a hot curry, fighting over the naan bread before you know it...

Chewing hands is not a sign of hunger. Your baby is going through the oral phase which is feeling with his mouth. Babies put everything in their mouths and this is him just starting.
If you haven't seen any change with SMA white, then put him back on gold. Infact, it is recommended that babies remain on whey milk until weaning between 4-6 months, 6 months being the optimum time. Casein based milk (SMA white, second milks) invariably causes constipation, wind etc. Second milks do not contain LCPs either. To be honest, I do not understand why they are still advertised for hungry babies from birth when they can cause so much upset for babies.
Lamin - your baby sounds as though he is going through a growth spurt. I would just give him extra gold cap milk and he will settle again.

He is my first baby. I really don't know what to do for the best. I am concerned about SMA White making him constipated as he has trouble with that anyway - only goes every other day . I had wondered whether he was teething also but how can you tell for sure. My gut tells me he is hungry after his 7am bottle he started getting grizzly at 9.30 am (normally waits until 10.30 happily) I managed to destract him by going for a walk but had to leave starbucks in a bit of a hurry! He had another 8ozs at 10.30 and I can just hear him now woken from his nap after only 45 mins (normally has 2 hours). He is normally really happy. So confused ...

Remember babies just grizzle! Maybe he is tired or just hacked off!

Lamin, this all sounds familiar to me! My ds has also had days when he's been hungry by 9.30, and wakes up after 45 minutes of his lunchtime nap.
How much does he have at 4am? It may be that because he has some milk then he doesn't take enough at 7am to keep him going till 10.30. Or he might just be hungry!
I think my ds wakes up at lunchtime when he sleeps too much in the morning. On the mornings when he only has 30 minutes he sleeps for a full 2 hours at lunchtime.
I don't think you need worry about how often he fills his nappy - mine has gone a week before now and seemed none the worse for it ( I, on the other hand, was considering burning his nappy! )
My ds still has hungry days at 16 weeks and is always chewing his hands, but I think they're just that, hungry days, not a sign that he's ready to be weaned.
That was a bit rambling - I hope it helped!

I can remember a change of routine happening about then. We also vaguely followed GF - in that I would follow ds's lead and then check in GF that what he was doing was similar to what she said. I had a few bad patches when I thought everything was all wrong, but it turned out that I was sticking to old routines, but ds was trying to move on.

We also had tummy upsets when we moved to SMA gold and then to white. Now he's 6 months we tried the SMA Follow On powder, but gave up after 10 days of the runs. I've realised there's not much point persevering with a formula which doesn't suit.

I reckon that you just have to give it a go, but be really careful to read the signs, cos you know your baby best (which is rich advice coming from an evil mummy who let her poor darling suffer for 10 days - but hopefully I've learnt that lesson for you!)

Thanks for all the advice - the good news is he slept till 6.45am this morning (which I was very grateful for after v late night at the Robbie Williams concert! Anyway beside the point ). I guess I will wait and see what happens maybe it is working after all? Or maybe he was having a growth spurt and would have been OK still on Gold. Oh I don't know - never realised motherhood would have quite so many dilemmas! Its poo day today so will wait with interest to see if he goes. Just one more thing - I am concerned about the lack of LCPs in White - when I do start him on baby rice should I change back to Gold?

dont keep chopping and changing baby milk. now his on white and if he seems happy on white then leave him be. follow on milks arent always nessercery either as he should be getting a lot of iron from his food at 6months. my sister has put her daughter on progress and the poor love is constipated.
my dd2 was on white from around 10 weeks, started sleeping longer (was feeding every 2 hours day and night on gold), she is a big girl now (28lb at 11months) but was 9lb at birth, lost hardley any weight the 1st week, actually weighed 2oz more when she was weighed at one week and that was when she was being bf. i dont think white contains more calories, its just a different based formula that will sit longer in the stomach than gold.

OK after 2 days of constant wingeing from ds - which I think was due to constipation as he kept straining and did a very hard cotton wool like poo - i have given up and gone back to Gold. But he is obviously still really hungry - last night he woke at 9.30pm (normally it is like waking the dead at 10.30pm) and had 7oz despite having 8ozs at 6pm - then he woke at 2.30am - another 60zs and then 6.30am . Getting huge pressure from my Mum and MIL to wean him early but I gather baby rice constipates as well. Don't know what to do - don't want to wean before he is ready and make him constipated but feel really sorry for him as he seems so hungry and unsatisfied. Any advice gratefully received.

When my ds changed from Gold to White he suffered with constipation - this was nearly 10 years ago now so things may have changed but I found that giving one bottle of Gold a day was enough to prevent the constipation - I usually gave this at around tea time as he seemed to be least hungry then. Only other thing I would think of at the moment is maybe he is suffering with the heat and is thirsty - I would offer lots of cool boiled water in between milk meals, possibly adding a teaspoon of orange juice into it which may help his movements....