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!!!!

@whoops2024 My son had this when he was about 3 months old. We were told to swap to powdered goats milk. It cost a lot more but after a few months of it we were able to return to the powdered cow's milk. He is 18 now and totally fine. Drinks milk out of the fridge by himself. 😁

There’s soya in a lot of formula and babies with CMPA are often allergic to soya as well
Neocate worked for both of mine but it does take awhile for the gut inflammation to go down.
I did mainly BF but with so many things cut out of my diet it did have quite an impact on me

It’s worth looking up the prescribing guidelines for your area.

The amino acid formulas (like neonate and alfamino) are very expensive and many areas theyre not approved for GP prescribing so have to come through a specialist.

You can buy them without a prescription, so if you wanted to try it yourself you could (but they are expensive).

Trying one of the high fat oat milks for a few days could be worth it. Yes, theyre not the ideal choice but either is your current circumstances and there’s nothing in them thats not suitable for that age.

also worth talking to health visitor, sometimes they have different routes to dietician support.

It is actually advisable. I have a milk allergy 8 month old who has been through dietician and private allergy clinic. Alpro Oat is one of the milk alternatives for dairy allergy. Have they had the allergen skin and blood testing yet ? I would push for that and if you are in the position to, go privately to have it done to get it quicker. Absolute game changer for us. Now we are starting microdosing regimes to support his multiple allergies.

The advice was to swap to cow’s milk at 1 when my 2 were babies, they are now 16 and 18…

Have you tried kendamil? Pick up on of the tiny bottles and have a whirl, it suited mine when others were awful for them.
Poor baby, you must be struggling, it’s shit when they’re so uncomfortable. Hope something helps soon.

Try some nannycare goat formula. We are having a lot of issues too, tried prescription milk but only marginally helped and made reflux much worse. Baby can't tolerate any conventional formula like aptamil, kendamil. Can't tolerate kendamil goat milk which still has some cow milk in it, but we are having some luck with nanny care goat milk.

I’m a dietitian ( but not paediatrically trained). In our ICB we recommend allergic babies to start transitioning to over the counter plant based cows milk substitutes at 1 year old, once they are getting a good amount of nutrition from foods. Your baby should probably be investigated for allergies or to determine what exactly is causing the issues. I would have thought 6 months is too young for a plant based “ milk “ because it won’t have enough nutrients to sustain her.

All our allergy infants only switch to oat milk at 12 months. It just isn’t as nutritionally complete.

Seriously!!! Cows milk to drink is not recommended until 12mths +

You need an amino acid based formula like neocate all the ones you have listed above have one or both of the cows milk protein in them

A fully amino acid derived formula should be the next step, and weaning as much as possible, my son thankfully responded to aptamil pepti syneo but as you have rightfully said oat milk and cows milk are introduced at around 12 mknths these days as they're not nutritionally a substitute for formula which is in turn formulated to provide the vitamins that would be present in breastmilk. I also couldn't breastfeed due to a severe tongue tie causing malformation which he has now grown out of, hard enough to find a bottle teat he could try.

It sounds like you've advocated for your little one as best you can at a hard time with a baby x

Many of the non dairy milks are fortified to ensure they contain the same calcium and other nutrients like vitamins as formulas would.

I have no idea whether this would be useful or not, but notes tell me that my adopted son had similar sounding difficulties as a baby and he was prescribed something called Monogen formula? It’s another one that might be worth enquiring about?

I would agree tho 6 months does seem very young.... If she was 9 or 10 months and eating well and a wide range of foods you might understand it but 6 months is very little still.

From one formula feeding mum to another (and my baby has CMPA) you're doing great. Your choice whether or not to BF is no one else's business. Some people have really strong opinions on it, but if it's not their baby then I don't see why they have to stick their noses in 🙂

We had Alfamino which was great for my DC with severe milk protein intolerance - formula has all the nutrition required up until 2 years old 👍

Hi Op, my DD (now 19 so you'd like to think things had moved on 🙄) was allergic from birth to many things (at one point over 40 things). We tried many types of milk including BF but she was allergic to BF as well (passed through from me but at the time understanding of this was very low, I would have stopped eating everything to protect her if it had been known). You have had many suggestions for milk and you will have to fight for it. But there are many types - we had soy, goats milk, sheep milk, hydrolysed formula milks. I would however suggest you ask for immediate allergy testing to find out what the specific issue is. This can be done fairly rapidly and I am shocked your Dr hasn't suggested it. Be prepared that in a small baby it's fairly brutal, mine was tested for over 50 things, lit up like a Christmas tree and had to be hospitalised due to how severe her reaction was. She was allergic to nearly 80% of the things they rested for and her allergies grew as she got older. Many things (like soya) you can become allergic to, so she became allergic to soya as a result of two months of soy formula milks. She was hospitalised so many times by 4 months and had 95% loss of skin. Allergy testing meant we knew what she was allergic to and controlled her diet. It was difficult but the symptoms, skin loss, mucus, tummy upset, bacterial infections went very quickly. She was also highly allergic to non food things, dust, pollen, grass etc. She was weaned early, it was easier to go onto solids and supplement her nutrition in different ways. For 5 years, she ate only meat, fish, veg and some fruits and rice related products. She was ok with sheep and goat products. If you need hope, by the age of 8 she was clearly of everything, overnight like a switch. It was an amazing thing to witness. She's now 19, super fit and healthy, and eats EVERYTHING. Keep fighting.

Wowie lots of comments thank you! Currently doing dinner and bedtime with my 2 LOs will return and reply to as many as possible once I get some "me" time. Thanks all xx

I am sorry you are going through this. Keep a detailed record of diet and symptoms. Push for a referral to a paediatrician and a paediatric allergy specialist/immunologist. We were lucky there is a children’s hospital with an allergy clinic nearby; we had to fight to get the appointment but it was life changing. Don’t doubt yourself and be prepared to demand. Some posters have mentioned skin prick tests on arms; the clinic we were at used the back (larger expanse of skin). They preferred not to do RAST (requires a blood draw) as child was very young. I found a lot of help and ideas on mumsnet and am ever grateful 💐 didn’t initially clue in it could be an allergic reaction (BF; had to go on a drastic diet as child couldn’t tolerate formula; we tried many)

We ended up on Alfamino until he was 1 and then switched to Oatly Barista but it was a long battle and I received some shit advice along the way - the best being a GP telling me to just water down his formula to see if he reacted less. He was a premature baby with allergies, I wasn't about to start watering down feeds!!

I ended up paying for allergy tests for my 9 month old (he was five months when I had the tests) because his NHS appointment was not until he was one year and one month, and that was after insisting for months to the GP that there was something wrong prior to referral. My son was premature , so on C&G nutri-prem and breast-fed but due to be weaned, I found out he is allergic to eggs. I got the contract details of a specialist from the Allergy Trust. I was told by the consultant that sometimes they don't always get the answers parents want.

Could you ask for neocate? My DD was given nurtimagen and reacted badly to it as it still contains a small amount of CMP but managed neocate, we were even prescribed neocate junior when she got a bit older. We were also given some vitamins for her that contained soya (as the two allergies often go hand in hand) so they were changed too, it's worth checking everything she comes into contact with my DD at 8 still reacts to very small amounts. Good luck

Cows milk is 12 months and always has been no baby is weaned enough at 6 months old to stop being formula fed!!!!

How about goats milk? That is supposed to be the next best closest to human milk.