Talk to me about comfort milk

[DialMforMummy]

Hi, I have been battling with DS's crying and I believe this is mainly due to reflux. He is 5 weeks old and ffed. I have tried Colief, Infacol and Gaviscon. All of them without results. It breaks my heart to see him struggling like this.
I wanted to try one the comfort milk but it says on the box that they should be used following medical advice. I am waiting for my GP to call back to talk to him about it.
IYE, are they worth it? Have you used them without taking medical advice?

They aren't going to do any harm - the worst that'll happen is that your baby might get a bit constipated because the formula is thicker than usual stuff.

Sometimes what looks like reflux is actually milk protein intolerance. The symptoms are nearly identical. Comfort milk has some of the proteins broken down slightly, but probably not sufficiently to produce any effect if your baby really does have a cow's milk protein intolerance. In which case there are specialist formulas available which are extensively hydrolysed. These are generally on prescription.

If it's just plain old reflux the comfort milks might help a bit because they are thickended I believe. You could also try sma staydown or something similar, which is probably going to be even thicker.

DialM, this would be a good question to put to the formula manufacturer's telephone helpline - they can explain in what way comfort milks are different. Your GP can help, too.

Comfort milks are not really all that different from regular formula though - they produce softer poos which may help with babies who are constipated. But I don't think they even claim to help with reflux.

Aww bless Reflux is shit.

With the comfort milks I found that they made no difference to dd's reflux. SMA staydown was the one that worked for us, its thicker so its harder to bring back up. If you do go with the SMA, it does have to be made with chilled water and you might need a bigger size teat, as its more like a milkshake then milk.

Make sure you tell the dr that the gavison didn't work, there are other meds to try

Well, I am not sure exactly what it is to tell you the truth....
I think there are some reflux issues there, but maybe colic also and certainly wind...
I have given the comfort a go, we'll see what happens.
You are quite right tiktok, these don't claim to help with reflux.

Oops yes, I think I was getting mixed up. In our forays through every formula milk seemingly ever produced, ever, I may have got a little mixed up.

Is your baby vomiting a lot dialmformummy and/ or seeming to be in pain?

In pain, yes defo. Vomiting, no as much, he has the occasional small puke but the other day I could sort of see that he was fighting something coming up IYSWIM and also he sometimes HATES lying down, even when in the pram.
I am not keen to give DS SMA because DS1 got terribly constipated with SMA, although it was the normal one at the time.

I thought I'd update: after being on comfort milk since Monday, DS seems to be much happier, so whatever is different seems to have a positive impact. They don't do cartons though which is a bit of a bummer but not the end of the world I suppose.