Baby intolerant to formula – pls HELP!

[fairi]

I?ve been forced to supplement feed baby cuz of very erratic bm supply (see previous message). Problem ? baby does not get on with any formula ? he is dairy intolerant. I live in South Africa and our dairy intolerant options are limited to NanHA (hypoallergenic dairy foruma) and Soya. The first does not agree with baby ? so am now trying soya (baby is 5 months) ? it has helped his ?aggravating? symptoms, but now he is very constipated (even with flax oil added to most bottles and using a probiotic). Any idea on how to assist him digesting the soya to avoid the constipation? Someone recommended adding brown sugar to the bottle ? anyone with experience of this? I?ve been forced to use glycerin suppositories the last two days ? but that is not a long term solution.

Also ? I?ve seem previous mumsnet discussions recommending Aptamil ? what sort of formula is that? (I?m wondering if I can order it over the net if it is not available in SA).

Aptamil is a standard formula based on cows milk so not suitable for your ds. Sorry, can't help with other solutions but (not having seen your other message) presume you have had professional help (breastfeeding counsellor, lactation specialist) with the erratic bm supply.

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fairi,
not sure what sort of dairy intolerant your babe is, but there is also a goats milk baby formula available. Its called Nanny, and its manufactured in New Zealand. May be suitable for cows milk intolerant babies, but not if they are lactose intolerant I guess.

The only other formulas Ive seen in the UK are soya based ones.

i wouldn't add sugar to the bottle...

only other things i can think of are making sure he drinks some water each day, if that doesn't help then try giving him a small amount of pure orange juice diluted with water...

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I have just seen your other thread. What do you mean by erratic supply, exactly? How long have you been supplementing? What are your baby's signs of being intolerant?

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What does HV stand for?

to anwer your questions about what I mean by:

supplementing with formula since:
baby's first week - he was born with severe tongue-tie and had lost more than 12% body weight by day 5. Tie was corrected at day 8 - but my supply had not been adequately stimulated by then (I'd been trying to express - but time was limited as I also have a toddler)

erratic bm supply:
I have a fairly steady low supply (max ebm = 30ml). Beyond this, each change I make (tonics/herbs/acupuncture/eglonyl) makes an incredible improvement for just over a day - where baby can almost feed completely on bm which show in his poos - then it seems to wear off and I'm back to the usual low supply. My max bm output is during the night. He greatly prefers feeding when we are lying down in bed.

his signs of intolerance:
depressed but not sunken fontonelle, grey instead of white around the iris of the eye, strong tendency to respiratory probs (inclding 2 episodes of pneumonia by 5 months), black putty like poos
since being on soya all of these have changed except his poos are now hard, brown balls which are only passed with a glycerine suppository and are painful

I am beginning to think I'm one of the 10% of women who have insufficient breast tissue to produce milk for my baby - but I hate to think so.
I can't understand why I'll respond to some sort of "intervention" (acupucture/herbs/eglonyl) for just a short time and then will revert to my original supply even if I continue with what helped it. Surely the fact that I at least respond briefly should mean that I can produce the milk. Any ideas/ thoughts on this?

There's only 1% of women, physically unable to breastfeed (which includes due to medication they're on etc. etc.) so I'm not sure where the 10% figure comes from.

Re. expressing, although I was daisy the cow with my first (9 weeks prem so used ultra efficient hospital pump) with the others I was hopeless. There was no way that I would have expressed anything like enough to feed my babies and it took ages too. Are you sure that your supply is low or are you just assuming because you're not expressing much that it's low.

Also, it is likely that your supply dwindled when you were supplementing, so if you wanted to fully breastfeed you would have to work to get your supply back up. Most usual method is to feed baby as per normal but express as well.

I really would recommend seeing a qualified breastfeeding counsellor, because if you can get your supply consistent again, then your problem is solved.

fairi, robinia's questions are pertinent. I can't get a handle on your situation at all, sorry. I just can't see why you think you have a poor supply: if it is just because you express varying amounts, then that's not really evidence!

You need to talk this over with someone who knows about bf - one of the bf lines will help you.