Nutrimigen tastes so terrible!

[AuntyHan]

Hi have just started using nutrimigen with 4 month old as he's allergic to normal formula and shape of his mouth means breastfeeding exclusively is no longer an option. Too Many bouts of mastitis for me.

It tastes so awful and he's really not keen. Cries and cries while looking into my eyes desperately. I feel like I'm completely betraying his trust. Tried to give mostly breast milk mixed with a little nutrimigen as a start, but the taste is so strong, it completely overpowers the bm.

Can I flavour it with anything? Or is there anything else I can do to make it less horrendous an experience for him? Think I will persevere for a bit? Then maybe try nanny milk instead.

We were advised to flavour it with nesquick or crusha or to mix with breastmilk and gradually reduce the amount of breastmilk.

Have you tried Pepti or Pepti Junior? These were the only formulas that ds2 would take.

Thank you. Will look into these other formulas. He's now taking a small amount mixed with bm with much less objection so may be ok in the long run. But poos quite watery and more green. Did u have this experience and does it matter? Ie did it equate to poorly tummy?

Nutramigen can give green poo iirc. But tbh, ds2 wouldn't even touch it. He took Pepti Junior without any mixing with bm from about 9 months until a year (in combination with bf). I don't remember him getting green poo from that, but I do remember the info about it said they might.

Do bear in mind that all these formulas are still based on cows milk, but cows milk where the protein has been broken down, so some children still react to them. In that case, you can try either Neocate or Nutramigen AA which are amino acid based formulas. These both taste foul, but we did get ds2 to drink Neocate from a year on by mixing with Pepti Junior. It took about 2 weeks before he was drinking pure Neocate.

It does and its even worse if you leave it lying for a few hours waiting to be washed up!
My daughter took to it straight away though and the Dietician seemed to think that was a good sign. She has been fine on it ever since and recently we have started introducing cows milk. (She is one year)

Mine was about 4 months when she started it too. Has it been prescribed for him? if so maybe you need to speak again with your dietician/GP

Yep, prescribed. Will speak with gp again. And will consider crusha too. Thanks for that!

We were advised to mix vanilla essence with it along with breast milk. My son was having none if it so I decided to breast feed him for as long as I can. He's 14 months now...was 3 months when tried nutramigen and neocate. He can now tolerate soya formula but this isn't recommended before 1 year. I feel your pain hun. X

we used a banana-vanilla flavoured Neocate. They're reluctant to prescribe it at first resort, because it gets the baby accustomed to a sweet taste, but frankly there was no way my child was going to take to the unflavoured Neocate. Like Nutramigen, it tastes completely vile.

A friend of mine had a child on Nutramigen, and she was asked to taste the formula when going through security at the airport. She absolutely refused! Said, "Have you ever tried this stuff? You'll have to shoot or deport me".

Anyway, I wouldn't bother flavouring it myself. Go back and ask your doctor about the banana-vanilla version.

Best of luck.

We were not told about the favoured version!!!! My boy sees the allergists at st. Thomas' and a whole army of dieticians. I wonder if it's no longer available? I'll be asking cuz us mums go through hell with the foul formulas!

DS had C & G Pepti and took it no problem after being ebf for about 7-8 months. He now (3 yr) has cow 's mill with no problems.

The flavoured version is only available for over-1's.

My DS had it straight off, same as Neocate. I've heard other mums have mixed it with tiny quantities with bm then slowly increased the amount. Takes a while.

Are you sure it's the taste? Not the bottle?

Poos are green and runny.

apologies if this is out of line but how much help ave you had with bf difficulties?

Wow, thanks for all yr replies! Been busy as he now has a sickness bug, so sticking with tiny bits of breast milk at the mo, as advised by hv.

Had lots of advice re bf from many different sources. Long story but basically weaning off bf is the way to go for our family. I get v ill With mastitis as shape of his mouth means milk never drains properly out, then no good for looking after either kids, inc v active toddler.

Re bottle, had advice from cranial osteopath re best fitting teat. He was taking bm from it ok.

Once he's better, will try nutrimigen again and if after a while, he's still not keen, will talk with gp about those other options. Good to have a few ideas .....knowledge is power!

Thanks again.

:( oh you poor thing. Hope you can get the milk thing sorted. Won't be too long before he's eating anyway :)