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 shouldn’t have to but have you considered paying private to see a paediatric doctor with a specialty in CMPA. My friend ended up doing that with her little one as she was at the end of her teather with it. Think she paid about £250 (.it was a few years ago now) and the doctor she saw privately actually worked at one of the local hospitals she he transferred her over to being an NhS patient under him after the initial consultation so she had follow up appointments with him too without having to pay anything extra. She said it was definitely worth it. If you happen to live in the South Yorkshire region I can get his name for you.

I'm not sure then why we are constantly told to contact GP for options by the health visitor. I was referred to paeds and ended up having to explain to the doctor there about the different formulas available as he said he didn't know the options. Both times I was told I just had an unsettled baby. I felt like I was being treated as a neurotic mother.

If GPs and Dr's don't know about this because it isn't on their curriculum then they shouldn't be advising. 6 months of hell for my little boy and caused extreme stress in the house because he was so uncomfortable all the time. Within four days of changing to Neocate I had such a happy placid boy. Time I'll never get back when I should have enjoyed my newborn bubble. I'm not bitter haha! That has been very therapeutic to write!

My long winded point was there seems to be a lot of babies and parents struggling with this issue - the GPs need a clear map of things to try if they are not educated on the subject. Or we need quicker referral times to see those who know. 😀
Interesting though that it isn't on their curriculum.

We had a similar problem with my son (now 18 so things might have changed since then). We filmed him while in distress when feeding because the doctors never saw it happening.

Tried all different formulas. Eventually managed to find a private consultant who worked out the problem was an intolerance to a particular protein. This protein was also present in soy milk which is why moving to a soy based formula didn't work. The formula was only available on prescription. It smelt like bleach but it fixed the problem. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the formula now - peri meno brain 🙄

I really hope you get it sorted, I know how heartbreaking it is.

Knowledge of infant allergies is patchy amongst GPs. The best gp we had caveated every bit of useful advice with "this is from my experience of having a child with cmpa not my training".

My daughter has multiple food allergies including dairy, soya and coconut. Her go prescribed her 3 formulas with coconut in before admitting defeat, we ended up going private and he found that alfamino was the only coconut, dairy and soya free formula.

You have tried a lot of formulas but they are all dairy based so if they have a sensitive dairy allergy they will still be reacting to the proteins in the hydrolysed formulas. Allergies to the proteins in milk are much more common than an intolerance to the sugars which is why you probably didn't see an improvement with the lactose free formula as that only has milk sugars removed and still has the proteins.

About 90% of babies with cmpa will react to other mammalian milks such as goats milk and about 50% of babies are also allergic to soya as the proteins are similar. Given the number of formulas you have already tried I think I would be going back and pushing for an amino acid formula such as neocate or alfamino. These have all the building blocks of a milk based formula but they are completely dairy free.

We had issues getting my daughter off breastfeeding due to a bottle aversion and it was hard work trying to get a 10 month old to accept the taste of the formula. We had to get special permission from the HV to potentially stop breastfeeding without switching to formula prior to 12 months. Her diet was found to be no where near sufficient to meet her needs without formula. We did manage to get her on formula and she was 20 months before her diet was sufficient to wean her off formula and on to oat milk. There are only a handful of oat milks that are suitable too as they have as they need higher fat than most oat milk and not all have equal fortification. The ones that do are often on the expensive side. My daughter is on oatly barista as it's the only one compatible with her allergies and that's currently £2.20 a litre!

I would speak to another GP but also get in touch with your HV as they might be able to give some advice. Mine was able to refer me for dietician support but her paediatrician agreed to refer her.

I haven’t had chance to read all the replies but all the formulas you’ve been given so far still contain milk protein and will have MILK written somewhere on the ingredient list. You need one that doesn’t have any milk at all such as neocate (there are others too).

its not worth trying a soy based one as baby could potentially have issues with soy too.

go back, tell them you want a formula with no milk at all like neocate, be firm with them

many doctors know very little about CMPA

mine told me he couldn’t have it because he was breastfeeding, he only had reflux because he was premature (it reduced when I cut egg from my diet and went completely when I cut milk from my diet) it was a coincidence mine got eczema flare ups on his face every time I fed him a bottle (I was mostly breastfeeding), I was also told he couldn’t have reacted to a quaver as they don’t have milk in them, they also couldn’t diagnose what the blisters were in his mouth but that it was another coincidence that they went away when I cut milk out of my diet

I only got anywhere with them when he reacted very strongly to half a teaspoon of yoghurt during weaning and I took a picture and sent it to them (that was at 8.5 months)

You can’t over the counter but we had Piriton prescribed just incase. It was very helpful while we figured out exactly how sensitive to things he was. At first he reacted even if a safe food was cooked in the same fryer in a cafe (chips cooked in the same fryer as a battered fish for example) and even if it was me that ate it and it went through my milk

Sorry to hear this. Formulas are horrible in general. We had terrible experience with similar symptoms, we tried many, but only Holle worked for us. Have you tried that? Surely, best quality formula you can find. They have goat milk one as well. Hope she'll be fine soon. All the luck.

Have you tried Kandamil comfort milk? Or their organic range? Definitely give the comfort milk a try. They also sell comfort drops online to help with digestion. They where great for my little one.

Nothing worked for us until SMA Alfamino!

Ds has grown out of the allergy now thankfully x

Had you not thought your baby could be dairy intolerant? Watery eyes, mucus and stomach problems, definitely suggests it There are soya formulas out there.....or breast milk donars.

I'm so sorry to see the BF fascists are still fully functioning and causing other women hurt and distress when we should be supporting others. I was a health visitor and did choose to BF my 2, but it was far from easy. Of course the mantra is breast is best, which I support up to a point - only best when it doesn't undermine women and their choice in how to feed their babies. Ignore those idiots. But I'm sorry that my knowledge of infant nutrition is too out of date to offer you any advice. I sincerely hope you can resolve this soon

Thank you everyone! There are far too many message for me to respond to sorry but just want to say thank you for all your kind words and advice !!!

My child was breastfed for 3.5 mths and then formula. She wouldnt take any formula after 6 mths. I tried for weeks and even retried breastfeeding again. She just wouldn't entertain it so I gave her cow milk. Not saying that this is your problem but I weaned her and she was fine

Oh and antihistamines can be given to under 1s but it has to be prescribed by a Dr rather than bought over the counter

I'm so sorry you're going through a difficult time feeding your little one, it's so distressing for you and then so really feel for you. Especially when your GP has been so unhelpful and not up to date on latest guidance and info.

If you're in a position for private care, I have found that lactation consultants are incredibly knowledgeable, kind, helpful and crucially non judgemental! I know you haven't BF but my experience is that most IBCLCs are passionate about infant feeding and supporting families. They may be able to offer support from another angle as your GP isn't being supportive.

Hope you manage to get to the bottom of things and that now you're starting solids she can have fun with food!

Maybe try goats milk it's usually better tolerated. It's so hard mama, and i can feel your despair but if it's any comfort babies are resilient try everything you can, and also see if baby is ready for weaning for extra nutrients. Probiotics have been so good for mine, optibac is suitable for infants from birth.. also baby massages (tummy massage) plenty of tutorials on youtube. Finally I would definitely consider changing the GP doesn't sound very competent. Good luck 🙏

I work at a nursery and we have one who can’t have any regular formula, they’re on neocate now and seems to do the trick. Hopefully you find a solution!

Was it the manufactures of baby milk that did this research? sorry but Im very cynical and you don't put up any type of study to check and see if it was independent or linked to a baby milk manufacture?

It’s not really a surprise that at 6months, when babies usually have milk as their main food source, that the non modified milk or a completely unrelated mammal isn’t best suited. The recommendation isn’t from milk manufacturers. Keep your cynicism and apply it to follow on milk - that’s bull shit.

I’m cynical of the milk manufacturers

you are welcome to not be cynical of their motives to sell you something for 26 weeks

ill leave it there and hope op has her answers from this post on what to use for allergies

The Dr can prescribe antihistamines to under 1 when my son wouldn't sleep he prescribed me a drowsy antihistamine and he was under 1