Talk to me about hi cal formula

[ApuskiDusky]

To cut a long story short - ds2 is 4 months old, and has struggled since birth with weight gain. Dropped from 50th centile to the white space below 0.4th centile by 10 weeks. He is being monitored by the paediatrician, and after much trial and error I decided to switch almost entirely to bottle feeding with as much expressed as possible (I bf direct at night). The switch to bottle feeding has led to him putting on almost two pounds in a month, and brought him back up to the 0.4th centile.

The paed when we saw her last week was OK with us carrying on as before - I express about 15-20 oz a day and the rest is formula. But she was concerned about slower gains if he for example got a bug, and said the next step would be hi cal formula. She has said I can call her to get this prescribed if needed.

So, guess what, ds2 has caught a cold and has a bad cough that means he is vomiting up lots of feeds (he is already on infant gaviscon for moderate reflux).So his milk intake has been well down for the last 4 days, and the cough isn't improving.

It's getting on top of me - the expressing, the concern about his weight just as I was starting to relax a bit, and now the regular changing of me and him when he's sick.

Can anyone tell me about hi cal formula, what's in it, what 'side effects' like constipation there might be? And has anyone got any experience of mix feeding with it? He's having 10-15 oz of formula a day, I guess if I switch to hi cal I need to give him less breastmilk?

I am so fed up with all this. .

I haven't actually tried it although was threatened with it a few times, but know lots of people who have as I have a very prem son, and know a lot of prem mums who are prescribed high cal formulas. The main one for prems is Infitrini. It's very similar to ordinary formula but more calorific From prems there is nutriprem as well, and I have given DS a small amount of that with his porridge. Its calorific becuase of something to do with the processing - I think infitrini is about 100 cals per 100 ml, nutriprem is 76 ish per 100ml, ordinary formula including hungry baby is 65 ish per 100ml. Don't know what though

Both do have constipations as a side effect, and they smell revolting, much more revolting than ordinary formula. They also therefore produce more smelly poo. Which given the constipation can also be plentiful when it comes. Also the reason in the end I carried on BF is because my DS just wouldn't drink nutriprem at all. It is less sweet than Breast milk, and even mixed together he wasn't going to be fooled. I know a few babies who are like that too!

I do also know people who mix feed with it, mostly BF or expressed milk, but 3 ish bottles of infitrini in order to get the calories in. A lot also mixed feed with nutriprem, and its often precribed if the weightgain is worrying. It works in just the same way as mix feeding with any formula! The amounts of formula the mothers I know use are the same as ordinary formula (especially for low weight babies with reflux) as trying to get more liquid in doesn't work if you've got a chucker, so the bottles are often only about 100ml at a time.

The good thing about prescribed formula is it is monitored, and of course it is free.

:( Apuski.

Here's my suggestion: call the paed and ask about this. My guess it would prob be a product like Infatrini which you can google, and there is prob a consumer helpline you can call.

X posted with hilda but I got the name of the product right :) :)

Thanks hilda and tiktok, that's very helpful. I'll speak to the paed.

After a quick google it sounds like infatrini is thicker than normal formula - I'm not sure if I will need to carry on with the gaviscon or not. I've also come across some kind of fortifying powder that you can mix with ebm, I will need to ask about that too; I would rather continue with as much ebm as I can, but don't want to scupper the weight gain in doing so.

DS1 was so straightforward to feed!

A lot of mothers with prems do fortify EBM. I was lucky and never did that either but it is certainly something which is also possible so do ask about that too.