Sma Althera

[Summersunx]

Hi guys, anyone's babies on sma Althera?
My little ones been on this for 2 weeks now for cmpa has all the symptoms for it ie respiratory,bowels,eczema issue.
Do any of you guys find it still caused baby to have watery sometimes loose nappies nappies? If so did this ever clear up on this milk and how long till all symptoms eased my little one is still very congested and coughing and I thought it may have cleated up 2 weeks on it now.

Many thanks ,

This is one of the extensively hydrolysed formulas so it is still dairy based but has the dairy protein partially broken down.
If there's been no or only small changes in 2 weeks it's probably time to go back to the Dr and ask for an amino acid formula such as neocate or alfamino.
If you have seen improvements but still symptomatic you might need to give it a few more weeks. It can take the gut 4-6 weeks to recover from the previous exposure to dairy and you need that to improve to see the difference in stools.

Hi, it might be that it's not the right formula for your baby. My baby was prescribed SMA Althera and then onto SMA Alfamino when Althera didn't work. Ask if you can try Alfamino or Neocate. They are for more severe cases of CMPA. They'll always prescribe Alfamino first as it's the cheaper option. They might well say your baby needs to be on it for 4 weeks before they'll make any changes though.

Hope you find one that helps soon! X

Thankyou I'm going to book in the doxs tomorrow and see what they say. How long was your little one on althera before they changed to alfamino? Did they do ok on this? Thankyou

Thankyou I'm going to see GP and see what next steps to take.

Sorry, I meant they'll try Althera first as it's the least expensive.

They made us wait the 4 weeks before they'd allow the change to Alfamino. Alfamino was much better. Her rash went within a few days of being on it. She had other issues (severe reflux) which made things tricky but the formula definitely helped her cmpa symptoms. I hope you can get it sooner. Push for it. X

Yes we are on althera at the moment but his still so congested his voice sounds really hoarse when he cries and babbles and his eyes are so watery. 2 weeks on althera now I think I'm gonna push for the alfamino as thus is really affecting us both right now. Thankyou

It's not just the expense. It is preferable to keep as much dairy in their diet as they can tolerate without symptoms to keep that tolerance so they are more likely to out grow the allergy. So for those with less sensitive dairy allergies it's preferable to be on an extensively hydrolysed formulas than an amino acid formula.

The extensively hydrolysed formulas also taste better so you have less of a battle getting babies to accept the flavour and not as thin so you don't need to worry as much about the formulas triggering reflux.

Hi,
we were on Althéra for about 3 weeks, baby still being sick like a tap all day but did ease other symptoms such as pain, rash, facial swelling. The stools weren’t normal, explosive diarhoea/constipation etc so a private consultant advised we move onto Neocate Syneo.

we aren’t a week in yet, he’s still being sick a lot (I have noticed improvement though!) and his nappies are a lot better. The colic has stopped and he seems a lot happier and settled.

please go back and ask to be changed if no improvement, the only trouble is it’s very hard to source so please make sure you are issued enough on the prescription, and reorder it well before you need it.

yesterday, we ran out (as have only been prescribed one tin at a time lasting 2 days!) and I called every hospital, neonatal department, chemist within hours drive from us and no stock anywhere. So I will be asking for more tins on the new prescription.

Thanks for the explanation. Nobody explained it to me like that at the time so it's good to know. They just said they think baby will need Neocate, however, to save the NHS money, baby will be put on Althera which seemed harsh at the time. Thankfully my girl took the Alfamino when prescribed it and can now have dairy in her diet (age 2 now).

I'd agree with asking for as much as possible on the prescription. Many times I went to collect the prescription to be told the chemist couldn't get any in stock yet, so when we did, we felt more secure having a few tubs and ordering the prescription in plenty of time. I had never been so grateful for other CMPA mums giving a tin of theirs to keep us going in times of need.

Hope the appointment went well @Summersunx?

For severe or complicated allergies or if they are already reacting through breastmilk sometimes they can skip the extensively hydrolysed but it's good practice to try and possibly a decision that GPs can't make as there are trust wide guidelines they have to follow in terms of prescribing practices.

There's also quite patchy knowledge of the differences between the formulas! some just know them all as "hypoallergenic formulas" and don't necessarily appreciate the difference other than when I see a baby with bad reactions they usually settle between on neocate. My daughter has a coconut allergy and her GP prescribed her 3 formulas with coconut in telling me it will be fine as it's hydrolysed. The dairy proteins are hydrolysed the coconut oil is not. We only have her the first one and left the rest at the pharmacy after checking the ingredients. The GP then gave up and we only found out that alfamino was safe after seeing a private paediatrician

General advice for ordering - In terms of number of tins, you should be looking to get enough for a week to start with then increase to two weeks supply then 2-4 weeks supply. I was mostly on foot so went with 6 tins which was 2-3 weeks supply for my 10 months old as I could only fit 6 tins in the pram basket! So I went with the convenience of travel over the inconvenience of more trips to the pharmacy! Order when you have at least 1 tin unopened and then try to increase it to 2-3 tins unopened before reordering especially if you are coming up to a bank holiday period!

Hey the appt went ok we are now going to trial alfamino as althera he was still having runny nappies on. Docs do seem to be quite clueless tho

Infant allergies do not form part of the compulsory GP training so unfortunately you are at the mercy of your GPs experience so you can get varied responses. The best gp we had was one who had a cmpa but prefaced with this is from my personal life nor professional training.

I hope you get on ok with alfamino

@Summersunxwe had a crap experience with Althéra too, my little one is on Neocate syneo now (not too dissimilar to Alfamino) and is doing a lot better only 2 weeks in.

thanks for updating