experience of goat milk formula?? Anyone? no bf supply at 8 months. no feeding help!!

[kalo12]

my 8 month ds is intolerant to cows milk formula (vomits, rash), unhappy about using soya , he has not taken well to solids, still only a couple of spoonfuls a day,

i have been bf -ing for 8 months, but since 4 months he has been waking up every hour to feed in the night.

I have lost so much weight, and am pretty underweight now, I have hardly any supply - and now ds doesn't bf in day other than for a couple of minutes, just wanting to suvk all night but don't think he gets much.

Anyway.... I want to introduce goats milk formula. Any advice on how? he will drink from a sippee cup.

Any advice on any of it would help. Please.

HV and Docs absolutely useless

I don't want to use regular formula (have tried many times)

bump

He will not necessarily be able to tolerate the goats milk formula any better. Has he had goats milk before?

you could give it a try, i'm not sure. My DD couldn't tolerate formula - excema and a very very hot face when feeding. I tried goats milk but it totally bunged her up and her poo turned to putty, bit of a nightmare really. But she didn't have a classic dairy allergy so your ds's reaction might be ok.

Try posting this in the allergy section, someone should come along who can give really good advice. There are a lot of allergy formulas out there like nutramigen etc... but i don't know much about them.

Take care of yourself too, it's hard when they're not feeding/eating well.

I thought goats' milk formula had been withdrawn

no it is still available but not allowed to be called "formula". Nanny goats milk powder or something. here

Sound really difficult, kalo

Here are your options as I see them:

*goats milk infant formula is not an 'approved' product in the UK. I think its use is bound to be less risky with a baby of 8 mths (compared to a newborn) but there is no evidence that a cows milk itol. child is any better off on goats....but you could try. You can buy goats milk formula over the web, I think.

• building up breastfeeding again by breastfeeding more often in the day - hard work and needs motivation to do, and you sound a bit low and prob not keen on this

• ask the doc for a referral to a paediatric dietitian who can explore the possibility of prescribing a highly modified specialist formula for your little boy - the proteins are broken down to make them more easy to digest by a sensitive tum

I think the ref. to the paed dietitian would be a good idea, anyway.

Good luck with this.

We have eczema and asthma on both sides of our family, and because of that I used goats milk formula with both dds, dd1 from about 4 months and dd2 from about 7 months, both were bf before then. I know that when I did try to use cows milk formula dd1s eczema gets worse, she doesn't suffer badly, but I notice the difference. Also, recently I decided to stop giving them goats milk from a bottle, and switched to cows. DD2 became badly constipated very quickly and I switched back and she improved.
The reason that goats milk formula was withdrawn from sale was that the governmental body which authorised its sale as baby formula milk found no evidence that it was any different/better to cows milk formula, if you email the people at vitacare they will be able to send you a copy of the judgement. It was not withdrawn because it is in any way unsafe. I would wholeheartedly recommend trying it. You can still buy the powdered milk which was sold as formula milk from most health food shops, but it is now labelled differently. Nanny is made by vitacare and can be bought directly from the here, the milk you want is the nannycare goat milk nutrition. The people there are extremely helpful, so if you have any worries then phone or email them.
I am pg atm and have big issues with bf, I will hopefully be able to last again about 7 months, but whenever I do actually give up, whether it's in the first week or tenth month, I will definitely be using goats milk formula.

YOu can get goats milk formula in Fresh and Wild and Waitrose. It's called Nannycare, twice the price of Aptamil. It still contains lactose though.

I give it to my dd (eczema). I really dont know if it makes any difference as she is on steroid cream. It doesnt make her poo like putty!

I'd go with the dietitian referral, although we were waiting so long on the NHS to see a dermatologist we took her privately in the end.

In the interim it cant do any harm, you could try a sippee cup if ds will take one or try a bottle. I use goats yoghurt too which is very 'goaty' so generally add some pureed fruit or jam syrup.

hi there. my first son had goat formula and then was able to tolerate cows milk from around 14 months..my third..[14 months] is intolerant to cows milk ,soya and eggs..however the eggs hes now grown out of thankfully but has been on goats milk[mixed fed] since about 4 months old after trying every other milk going inc hypoallergenic milks prescribed by the hospital!!! Hes doing very well on the goats and when they did various tests onhim they incuded the goatsmilk at my request and found he was ok on it ..however they won t prescribe it for you and it is expensive[£17 per tin!!] apparently its not supposed to be available in this country thats why they wont prescribe it!! health and weight wise both my boys are healthy,strong and very active and certainly brainy so they didnt lack anything from the goats milk fo rsure!! My ds now eats goats cheese,butter,cream etc and i make up lots of recipes from them all..now hes over a year i give him the follow on goats milk..smaller tin and £8.75.Hes had blood tests etc to make sure hes getting everything he needs and there are no deficiencies ..i just wish they told more people about goat smilk as an option..it saved my son as the only other option was to carry on Bf but that was a problem long term for me as im a veggie and need soya and he couldnt tolerate it through me or the milk either..certainly giev it a go and see then you can use that evidence to show the drs!!! personally anyway goats milk is more healthier than cows milk per se!!1

www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/Maternity/Maternalandinfantnutrition/DH_4099143 is the offish. UK policy on goats milk - there are some genuine concerns about the confidence in its nutritional adequacy for babies, but as I say, this is not likely to be so much of an issue with an older baby.

thanks for your help everybody. I have been referred to dietician and paedeatrician ages ago but not heard yet! i'm quite fed up with Hv and docs in general at the moment.

Anyway I tried ds on 1 ounce of nanny care this morning and no vomiting as of yet. Apparently my great grandmother died in child birht and my grandma was fed on goats milk from day 1 cos its closer to human milk.

I've read all about it on the internet (don't know how reliable) but from what I gleaned one of the reasons why the UK didn't licence it was cos the tests did not follow the correct admin procedures, however its licensed in many countries like NZ and Australia, and there is much anecdotal evidence from mothers to support its benefits above cows milk, Call me cynical but my feeling is that the UK govt is hardly gonna say goats milk is good when we don't have much goat farm industry but a massive cow farm industry. Just a thought!

my concern if he tolerates it is whether it will be nutritious enough.

As usual, mumsnet you have been invaluable, thank you

My DS was on goats milk as he was unable to tolerate regular formula. However, we were also under a superb paediatric gastroenterologist who was not at all happy about having him on it. He didn't ask us to change the milk until he had gone away and investigated it and he really wasn't happy about us using it as he was not happy that it was nutritionally complete. DS went onto nutramigen which he got on very well with but it is horrible. We tried DD on it when I stopped BF but she refused it and went onto pepti and to be honest a hypoallergenic formula is a much better bet than goats milk formula.

thanks for info. shit!

nutritionally i don t see the problem..compare the milks and TBh theres not much difference and like i said my first was on it 9yrs ago and my third[1] is still on it..trust me theres nothing wrong with any of their development and health and like i said they`ve had blood tests to check and came back all healthy..IMo the health service wont recommend it as its not officially been tested properly here..but in other countries i understand its used regularly without health risks..sometimes like complementary medicine the HS wont recommend although it works for lots of people but they cant explain how..goats milk is better for us in that it doesnt cause mucus either..its easier to digest too therefore less gut problems..what more do you want for a baby

all of the "alternative" practitioners - homeopaths etc.. all seem to recommend goats milk over cows milk ime.

yes, goats milk is fine for over 1's same as cows milk, I give that to my DD now as cows milk makes her much too chesty but the goats milk formula is different and I think that is where the concern arises. I can't see it doing any harm, my DS was thriving on it, actually he wasn't, he was better than regular formula but still really sicky, but I'd personally go for a hypo allergenic formula over a goats milk one. Mind you they're so revolting that it's luck if your DC will take it.

You can find the department of Health memo on the withdrawal of goats milk for infants under 12 months here we buy it from a baby food shop in devon who also sell online here. hope that helps