Please could you confirm this is wrong.

[dingdongmeggymooonhigh]

Hi friends of mine have a 9 week old baby boy. He didn't take to breast feeding at all and would not latch on. H elost so much weight they were told at the hospital he should be put on formula.
When he was about 3 weeks old they had a terrible time with colic and about 30 minutes after being fed he would SCREAM! This continued all day and the couple were in such a state they tried everything, all of the usual rememdies. My dh told me that the only thing they had been successful with was a goats milk formula or so we thought but it turns out that they are giving him warmed goats milk from the carton.

I'm sure this doesn't contain the right nutrients for their ds and I have suggested they speak to a health visitor or dietitian to get qualified advice but because I wasn't exactly sure what the milk was "missing" I didn't like to push it. They've said he's brilliant on the milk and they are not going back to formula!

Is it lacking iron and essential vitamins, I want to be sure before I suggest she changes his diet.

What a awkward situation for you, but do agree with the others that you have to do something, you would niver forgive yourself if GF the baby was taken ill.

If they will not listen to you perhaps you should take Ep's advice of ringing the HV or perhaps their drs surgery? Sure you could do this anonymously as a concerned froiend and say that they appear to be confused and need some guidance. HV could then just "drop in " to see how they are getting on, not really that unusual if they are not going to the clinic and take it from there.

Good luck!

Thanks Tiktok, that's very interesting and I agree with you, as much as my limited knowledge lets me. I understand what you are saying about the higher sodium content in goat's milk, but where do you stand on the fact that goat's milk is a better alternative for some people than cows milk? It is more digestible and many people who are intolerant to cows milk can drink goat's milk. Cows milk aggravates my dd's eczema for example, where as goat's milk does not.

i know we know a lot more about infant nutrition these days, but i was fed on doorstep cows milk from birth and i was ok, apart from excema. not severely malnourished or anything, and presumably lots of other babies had the same milk as me too (this is 40 years ago). i'm not advocating it as a good diet for a baby, just saying it might not be such a terrible thing for the baby either.

No idea, RosiePosie - sorry!

lol, okay!

Goats milk is closer to human milk than cow's milk. tbh I think that article in the telegraph is a bit flawed. The protein in cows milk is similar to the protein in goats milk, but it is also similar to the protein in human milk and there are plenty of children who are allergic to cow's milk but not to their mothers breastmilk. However goats milk is too high in sodium for a baby that age and does not contain enough iron. If they insist on using it, what about diluting it and using vitamin and iron drops to supplement. Personally, I would go for Nanny as it has been designed for infants.
(Also, have never seen Vitacare advertise, even though they do a follow-on milk)

Thanks for your feedback, I've asked my dh to speak to her dh again at work today and given him a few links, we will have to wait and see if they are still talking to us this weekend!