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Original poster

Allergic to formula?

20 replies

prufrock · 11/10/2002 13:59

I have just had to bring dd (5 months) home from nursery because she had been throwing up. This wasn' just milk comng back but really violent retching and bringing up bile. (Actualy v. similar to me in early days of pregnancy and I can remember how awful that was).
This has happened twice before, and after visitig A&E convinced she had meningitis last time I've now worked out she just hates SMA gold. She's been bf until now, with ebm during the day. She's also started solids - and loves food. I decided after getting v. emotional last night that I should stop expressing and move to just 2 bf a day as I want a little bit of life back and am so bored of spending two hours a day pumping milk. Of course I now feel incredibly guilty, but he will have to get used to something other than breast milk cos I can't go on like I was.
Is it worth trying other brands? Should I switch to goats or soya milk? Should I just resign myself to having a breast pump permanently clamped to my boobs? Maybe I should go the whole hog, give up work and spend 24 hours a day feeding her (MIL's suggestion!)

OP posts:

tiktok · 11/10/2002 14:10

Could be she has a tummy bug caught from one of the other babies, Prufrock?? Or maybe a reaction to one of the foods she is having?

You can get hypoallergenic formula (though apparently it tastes disgusting).

Soya formula - read up on it, and you may decide you don't want to go there. Put 'risks of soya formula' or similar into Google and see what comes up.

No evidence that goats formula is any less allergenic than cows....

If you're ok about feeding her when she's with you, she can have solids and water in the day, and get her milk from you outside working hours. At 5 months, she should manage ok on that, as long as you're ok about giving her plenty of feeds evenings and weekends.

You might need a while for your breasts to settle down in the day if you're not exp then, though.

Hope dd is feeling better.

JJ · 11/10/2002 14:59

Prufrock, my first son was the same way and turned out to be very allergic to milk protein. With my second, I did what tiktok suggested (it seemed he was allergic to milk, too, although he's grown out of it) and fed him when I was with him and gave him water and solids when he wasn't. I didn't work, though, but did spend whole days out without him.

There are two formulas that have no milk proteins: Neocate and Nutramigen. One of them is built from the amino acids, the other from broken up proteins (can't remember which is which). You might try getting some of one of those and seeing how that stays down. If it stays down really well, then think about doing a proper food challenge (eliminate all dairy from her diet yours too, unfortunately then reintroduce it and see what happens).

I, for one, and this is just my opinion, think the whole breastfeeding/perfect baby food/ideal everything for a child thing is overrated. Make sure you feed her, give her enough to drink and love her more than anything and you'll both be fine.

Good luck.

Original poster

prufrock · 11/10/2002 15:44

Tiktok- you were quick! I'm sure it is the milk - only common factor, and the three bouts were exactly the same. She didn't get to having her sweet potato today before being ill, and the first time it happened was before any solids.
Not sure if she would survive on drinking milk only in evenings - she falls fast asleep at 7.30pm and gets grumpy if she's kept up any later.

JJ - are the non milk milks widely available or do I have to get them fom somewhere special?

DD has been sleeping peacefully but has just woken and decided that Mummy's hair is a wonderful new toy!

OP posts:

Tillysmummy · 11/10/2002 16:00

Prufrock,

SMA also do a soya milk. You can buy that at most supermarkets.

Hope it gets better. May it be that just SMA gold doesn't agree with her. I know I tried several formulas before I found the right one for me.
SMA gold is quite rich. My dd got on quite well with the Hipp organic which is slightly lighter

beejay · 11/10/2002 16:29

Same thing happened to my daughter at 5 months, except she had a red rash rather than vomiting. Turns out that she was allergic to lactose, so no formula or dairy products
She had ebm and then soya milk formula which she flourished on ( and still has now)
She is nearly three
Anyway don't panic it is quite common nowadays and not the end of the world it seems when you first discover it!

SoupDragon · 11/10/2002 17:11

DS1 used to throw up violently on the Cow & Gate follow on milk which comes in the gold packet rather than the purple one and he's not allergic to anything! It took us a few days to work out and we simply switched back to the purple one and SMA Progress and never had the problem again. Try a different brand and see what happens - it may simply be the formulation. You should know fairly quickly if a different brand has the same effect.

HTH

percy · 11/10/2002 19:09

Hi Prufrock

Hope your dd is feeling a bit better, bless. If it is just a bug, then hopefully it will pass quickly.

but, if you are sure that there is an issue with her formula, then as a nutritionist my advice would be to try some goats milk formula and see how she gets on. I disagree with tiktok that there is no evidence that goats milk is less allergenic than cows milk, and also have many cases of anecdotal evidence from clients about it. it is nutritionially just as good as cows milk formula and infact has many nutritional advantages.

I would stay away from soya milk formula for now, until you have tried the goats milk. Soya is inself highly allergenic, plus there is the GM factor and lots of other issue too.

Only problem is that goats milk formula is really expensive! Always a catch - the brand you need is called Nanny - available from all health food shops and also waitrose supermarkets. Also I think you will find another thread on alternative milk options including goats milk elsewhere - a wide range of opinions there for you to browse through.

Hope this helps and good luck with whatever your choice is.

robinw · 11/10/2002 21:28

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JJ · 11/10/2002 22:03

Prufrock, you can get them from a chemist. They're expensive and available on prescription, so if it works, see her GP to get one or, if she's nice, get her to write you one now.

Do try other formulas, though. I've got no experience with them, so use my advice as a last resort.

The thing with lactose is sometimes confusing. Lactose is a sugar produced in animals' milk.. humans included. If a baby is lactose intolerant, she can't have breast milk. It's a serious thing. You'd know it.

And I was told not to use soya formula as a replacement, because my son is allergic to milk protein. They have similar proteins and it seems that using it could have provoked a soya allergy. From all I've heard, soya is, in general, just not a good nutritional substitute for milk. (As tiktok hinted, there have been other allegations made against soya. What I've just written was told to me by my son's paed. The lactose stuff too- I wish I had known that a couple of years ago!)

Hope it all works out for you soon.

Original poster

prufrock · 11/10/2002 22:16

Thank you all. We are going to try Cow and Gate tomorrow and see how that goes. DD has been perfectly fine tonight once she woke up from a 3 hour lunch time sleep. She wolfed down her apple and her baby rice and is now fast asleep.

OP posts:

mears · 11/10/2002 23:10

Prufrock - you should be able to reduce the amount of breastfeeds and expressing soon without having to resort to formula. To me it seems such a shame to have to faff around with numerous formula milks to find one that suits when you have done so well to still be feeding at five months.
However that is just me and it wouldn't do if we were all the same
Good luck with C&G if that is what you need to do.

Temples · 12/10/2002 01:58

Lactose intolerant means a baby can't have breastmilk? Isthis true? What would it drink?

robinw · 12/10/2002 07:09

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tiktok · 12/10/2002 10:22

Congenital lactose intolerance is extremely rare, as robin says....the babies fail to thrive on anything and symptoms are immediately apparent.

Temporary lactose intolerance can happen after a tummy bug, and some babies can't even breastfeed through it, though the vast majority can. Breastfeeding helps repair the gut in most cases.

Can only repeat to check out soya milk first - there are many problems associated with it, and while it may be needed for babies who can't take anything else, it's not something to be given lightly, IMHO.

GillW · 12/10/2002 10:36

Talking to DS's paediatrician yesterday about this and he said that when they put children onto soya milk after they've had problems with cows milk he knows that probably half of them will develop the same type of reactions to soya whichis itself highly allergenic. He did say that in many case these same children will be ok with goats milk (as DS is) and that he's thinking now that going down the goats milk route before Soya might be a better bet in general.

robinw · 12/10/2002 19:11

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JJ · 12/10/2002 19:39

Robinw, I think the adult thing is different from a baby having it. With an exclusively breastfed baby, she gets it 24/7. I found a link that explained it fairly closely to what I was told:
Australian Breastfeeding Association info on lactose intolerance . My doctor dismissed lactose intolerance in my second son (and said he was allergic to milk) because he was thriving (kind of, but certainly not failing to thrive). It can be very serious, whether due to a virus or infection in the gut (which he said was usually the case, but took a while to resolve) or congenital disease.

I don't know if that helps, but it's safe to say that if you're breastfeeding successfully and having trouble with formula, it's not because of lactose.

tiktok · 13/10/2002 11:49

Much of the world's adult poulation is actually lactose intolerant to some degree - they don't take milk as a drink beyond childhood. This trait is in most Asian poulations, including the Chinese. Most can tolerate small amounts of lactose, though.

Lactose intolerance develops over time, as the ability to produce lactase (the enzyme needed to digest lactose) declines.

It's different, as JJ says, from congenital lactose intolerance.

robinw · 13/10/2002 22:31

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scv · 18/12/2003 15:57

Help!
My son (13 months) has developed moderate diahorea which he has had now for the last 3 weeks and seems to be worsening (now with cramps). A stool sample has ruled out the usual suspects. The doctor (GP) thinks he has developed lactose intolerance after a 'unspecified virus'. He really hasn't come into contact with any virusses recently and we don't know anyone who has had a bad tummy. Of course, he did have the MMR vac 7 or 8 days before onset of symptoms. Has anyone had anything similar? Feel concerned about vac....link to bowel problems and regressive autism later on.....but can I stress I did not read anything about MMR controversy before the jab and it is only now, three weeks into the diahorrea that I am starting to research (just in case you think I've been stirred up by recent program etc) Would appreciate any advice....

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