Baby allergy? Drs shocking recommendation

[whoops2024]

Just shocked.

Since birth no formulas have been kind to my DD (mostly terrible poops diarrhoea, blood, mucus or constipation)

She's so far been on-

Cow and gate
SMA Althera
Aptamil Lactose Free
Nurtimagen 2 LGG
currently on Aptamil Pepti 2

But still symptoms are awful. ATM she is congested, watery eyes and mucus poop again.

I called dr to say this isn't working either. He knows she's 6 months and he mentioned changing the formula to Alpro unsweetened oat milk!!!!! I was like sorry what? I don't mean I need a milk for weaning I need a formula for her feeds! He said yes try that. I'm absolutely shocked that a dr has recommended that as a substitute to infant formula!!!

I challenged this and he said "I have run out of options, so continue with the Aptamil Pepti 2 until you hear from dietician" so I asked him to expedite the referral!

I'm shocked! Upset! And having to deal with a poorly baby! Sorry had to vent!!!!

You are an asshole.

I would push for Neocate. Do you think it's Cows Milk Protein Allergy?

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Maybe you should see a private paediatric doctor who specialises in this sort of thing. We did this with an eczema problem. Doctors are called general practitioners for a reason. They have some knowledge on a lot of things. There’s no point getting irate with him. He’s not a magician. There are only so many things he can suggest.

Nannycare formula was the only thing that worked for us. Quite expensive though 😏

Yes Neocate should be the next one offered. The Alpro growing up milk (oat or soya) is only meant to be from 1 year. When you get to that point, a nutritionist (referred via my GP) recommended the soya over the oat to me anyway, as it's higher in protein and fat I think. Unless of course baby is also allergic to soya. Stand your ground and push for the Neocate.

Is the GP on the older side? My granny said they were advised to stop formula/breastfeeding at around 6 months and concentrate on food with cows milk used as more of a drink than food source (I'm sure people often started weaning at 3/4 months back then too, so their babies would have had longer to build up how much food they ate).

Obviously a doctor should keep up with developments in medicine, but I think some can get a little stuck in their ways. I think I'd get a second opinion from a different GP in your shoes.

Good luck, it's awful when your baby is uncomfortable and your trying to figure out how to help

Thanks everyone

I will have a look into neocate and speak to another dr.

Also thanks to everyone who reported that person. Why I chose not to BF is not anyone's business.

Silly person.

@SipandClean thanks. I'll look into private as it's getting quite stressful seeing her like this. And of course I'm aware they are general practitioners. I'm not expecting them to be magicians but a GP should know babies cannot have plant based milk before 1. That should be common knowledge for him. So I did frustrate me today. But I am happy he's trying to get the dietician and gastroenterologist to see my daughter sooner 🙏

My 1st baby had severe reflux while BF to the point she was hospitalised at 12 weeks old, it was obviously something in my diet causing it but we couldn’t work out what. Switched to formula and the reflux settled. I say this as a currently BF mum, breast is not always best.

i’m sorry I can’t offer any advice and that you and your baby are struggling x

Why are people being so horrible? If OP hasn't been able to establish what her baby is allergic to, then moving to BF might not work anyway because the baby would be exposed to whatever allergens the OP is ingesting.

When I was BFing, I ended up excluding dairy, egg, soya and all nuts...DS was still ill and I was exhausted and losing weight so we moved to Neocate. When he had his first allergy tests, there were 6 foods he was allergic to (there ended up being more but a baby's arm isn't long enough to test for everything!)

@ToriTheStoryteller sorry to hear you went through that! Isn't it so stressful for baby and for the mother 😔 it's just such a long road to figure out what's updating my little one!

How did you manage to get an allergy test on the arm done? You've also mentioned neocate so sounds like this "could" be the one that helps!

And yes some people are just mean. It was only one person though from what I saw. Clearly sad person with nothing better to do. If they knew the reason I chose not to BF they would have shut right up. Or maybe not because some people are just mean in nature. But everyone else has been super kind telling them "where to go" 🤣

@TryingToStayAwake88 thank you! I did not know this i will join now :D

Do you know if she's allergic to soya because of she isn't then you could try her on sma soya formula. My little one has CMPA and luckily isn't allergic to soya so he had this for the first 12 months and then alpro toddler soya after that. Might be worth a try if your doctors a useless twat

@Devilsmommy thank you! Nope not sure what the allergy is at the moment.

Another dr recommended that when she was 4 months. I went searching for it and found out it had been discontinued. 🫠

Neocate was our answer. It took from 8 weeks old, and the GP made a mistake and switched us from Nutramagen to Aptamel Pepti 1, within 48 hours my 18 week old was hospitalised.
But we did then see a dietician in hospital and they gave us Neocate. I left the hospital a week later with a completely different baby.
It was an awful time, and a constant battle against endless GPs who did what they could but had no specialist knowledge so in the end I had to do my own research and teach myself the ins and outs.
Nutramagen is a hydrolysed formula (the protein is already broken down) and Neocate is an amino acid formula (there is no protein).
I am not a medical person and can only go off my personal experience, but if you can afford a private dietician I'd recommend it.
It was a 8 month wait 9 years ago 😬

you can buy a goat's milk formula which suits babies who can't take cow's milk:
https://www.nannycare.co.uk/
I have a friend whose baby had it very successfully

@Comeoutside
Thanks for sharing this sounds like so many recommend neocate. Horrible to read your LO was hospitalised 😔

Yes the wait for dietician and gastroenterologist (as her poop samples were coming up abnormal all the time) is such a long wait!

Might have to chat to husband about going private.

We were lucky and got referred for skin prick tests when he was 3 months to be done when he was 6 months so didn't start him on any food until after the appt.

But I suspect waiting lists 12 years on are not as well timed!

To be honest, Neonate didn't solve a lot of our problems straight away as I think his system was so inflamed by that point. He was probably at least 12 months old before his bowels, skin and reflux really settled.

Weaning was also pretty boring, we had to feed one food only for 3 days then move to the next...so it took a long time to build the variety. I was so jealous of friends plonking half a dozen things from their own plates onto their baby's high chair!

We got there in the end though and the upside was I became really good at baking and cooking because we couldn't use most shop-bought snacks, cakes or ready-meals!

@curious79
Thank you! So many have also mentioned nannycare in this thread too! And a friend has just messaged me saying her neighbour had the same problems with her LO and changed to nannycare and it helped!

So by sounds of it I need to try neocate and /or nannycare 🙏

For the love of god &&@&&@&!!!! The next step is an amino acid based formula such as neonate.

Maybe the GP isn’t allowed to prescribe anything else, and so you have to wait until the referral comes in? And that briefly trying something low allergy like oat milk would give you information even if it’s not suitable long term. Or GP’s just an idiot.

I think Neocate costs about £50/400g tin over the counter.

Is it possible the allergy isn’t to do with milk, but something environmental?

And if it’s any reassurance, I breast fed both mine. They turned out to have a milk allergy regardless, and ended up on Soya formula as a nutritional top up while they were under 10 and unable to eat milk or cheese.

A goat milk formula such as Kendamil may be worth a try: https://kendamil.com/collections/goat-formula

It has different amino acids and soluble fat structures to cow's milk so can be easier to digest.