Blood in baby's stools. Alternatives to soya milk formula.

[junojo]

I would be really grateful for any advice. My 6 week old baby girl has been passing blood in her stools for 2 weeks. My GP has reassured that other than this my daughter appears healthy and is putting on weight as expected. My GP has advised so far it could be a tear in her anus or a fissure. She has also suggested it could be due to lactose intolerance and has prescribed infasoy (soya milk formula) to try out for a few weeks to see if this makes a difference. Currently I am using aptimil formula. On the infasoy pack it says it is suitable from birth, but I've had reservations about the nutritional content and am reluctant to try it.

So i am looking for suggestions of other formulas that are lactose free. Does anyone have experience of this? Or of a baby passing blood in their stools.

Many thanks.

soya formula isnt recommended for babies under 6 months so should not be the first choice when choosing an alternative. SMA do a lactose free milk (SMA LF) or you could add colief to her existing milk to break down the lactose. I would go back to the gp and ask for an alternative

www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/can-I-give-my-baby-soya-based-infant-formula.aspx?CategoryID=62&SubCategoryID=63

My dd had blood in her stool (not everytime for a period of about a week she was a bit older though (20 weeks ish) + breast fed. It stopped + all ok with no intervention she is 11 mnts now + hasnt reoccurred. I mixed fed with aptamil from 6 mnts. (Saw Gp at time who basically said wait + see probably a tear etc). Hope your dd is good.

DS had blood and mucus in his stools as a symptom of cows milk protein intolerance. He was prescribed Neocate - there are links between the protein in milk and the protein in soya so a lot of children are allergic to both so maybe the soya formula is not the best option for your DC.

Thank you all of you for your sensible advice and alternative suggestions. I am seeing my GP on Wednesday and wanted to go armed with some facts.

Like you ilovepowerhoop I have read that soya milk is not suitable for babies under 6 months. Thanks also for the nhs link.

You may not have time to get hold of a copy before Wednesday but I highly recommend a book called Colic Solved by a gastro-paed called Dr Brian Vartebedian. Primary lactose intolerance is very rare in babies and it is more likely to be milk protein that is the problem as therein suggested, ( this affects 2-3% of babies) if indeed it is an inflamed gut and not an anal tear. Are the poos mucus say (slimy) as well? If you fold a soiled nappy and reopen it are there strings of mucus bridging the gap?
There are two categories of milk that are hypoallergenic re milk protein, the first is hydrolysed milk like Nutramigen1 or Pepti, the second are amino acid based like Neocate or Nutramigen AA. Soya isn't recommended for young babies and a lot of CMPI babies are also soy intolerant.

As Baking said it's unlikely to be lactose, more likely to be the milk protein. Nutrimagen/neocate are the usual hypoallergenic options. They are apparently foul tasting though, and expensive if you can't get a prescription.

One other possibility is Nanny Milk - formula made of goats milk. Of course many babies who are allergic to cows milk will also be unable to take goats milk but there may be some who can tolerate goat even if they can't tolerate cow, as it is apparently slightly easier to digest.

minipie the vast majority of babies allergic to cow's milk formula will also be allergic to goats'. Also, nanny goat is not approved in UK as an infant formula. It's prob fine nutritionally, as they go tho, prob more to do with big powerful formula cos not wanting their markets eroded.

Hope your GP gives you a script for hydrolysed formula. Soy is NOT suitable as others have said. Stand yoyr ground, many GPs are ignorant of CMPI.

Just to add my dd is 3 months, breast fed and has (so far) had three bouts of green mucousy stools with a small amount of blood in them. The first bout lasted for almost three weeks and was put down to a tummy bug, the second two have only lasted a day or two. I took her to gp and they sent us to hospital. They have thoroughly checked her over and decided, because she seems so well and is gaining weight, that it will eventually resolve itself. So will just wait and see. The consultant we saw at hospital said that allergy/intolerance would result in poor weight gain and a rash, although i have heard different anecdotally.

Hope your dd is ok and you find a milk that suits her.

I know of a lot of CMPI babies through the Little Refluxers website (CMPI common underlying cause of reflux) and by no means have all of them struggled to gain weight, though my LO did. 0.5% of babies are sensitive enough to CMPI to react to milk protein in breastmilk, so it's not that rare. Worth bearing in mind if problems not resolving, sleepy

That is interesting, thank you. Would she not consistently have green stools with blood though if cmpi?

Sorry to hijack OP

Narmada I thought that would probably be the case that most are allergic to both. just thought it was worth mentioning as a possibility. shame it's not approved.

We tried goats with DS, seemed ok at first but then.... same probs. gah. Kind of glad it wasn't the magic solution at £18 per tin :) :) xxx