Could this be cmpa?

[Peaches1996]

I really hoping that someone on here can help me, my doctors and hv don’t seem to be taking anything I say seriously and think I’m just a worried new Mum but hey here goes.

I have a 3 month old boy, he was born at just 37 weeks very quickly I was only in labour an hour, anyway after he was born I really struggled to produce breast milk I saw countless amounts of specialists but I just cannot produce milk, so he was given aptimil pro future formula in hospital and I carried it on when I got home, he then became constipated so I was advised to put him on c and g comfort formula which sorted the constipation right out but then the “colic” started I mean solidly painful awful crying 10 out of 12 hours a day, I took him to my gp and he prescribed him some gaviscon just to see if it was reflux upsetting him, this made him constipated again so I had to give him lactulose twice a day. Anyway fast forward to now, I cannot get him to drink the normal 25-28 oz of milk a day im struggling to get 16-20 in him and he’s loosing weight. I feel like when he’s drinking a bottle it’s really hurting him. No one believes me but I’m worried. His symptoms all include:
Vomiting straight after a feed quite a lot of vomit.
Colic.
Runny nose snotty.
Bloated tummy.
Constipation.
Refusal to feed.
Excessive crying.
Please can someone help!
I’ve tried, infacol, colief, gripe water and dentinox already with no success.
Thanks!

The only way to really tell would be to try a dairy free formula, you could try seeing a different GP but generally they're mostly rubbish woth cmpa.

You can order in special formula from most chemists. Be prepared for the cost though. Neocate is the most 'broken down' but it's revolting and a struggle to get them to drink it, your also looking at around £40 for a 400g tin.

We use aptimil pepti, it's partially broken down so some may still react to it, our LO is fine on it. It's still £20 for a small tin though so about 4 times the cost of normal formula.

You Could try it for a couple of weeks and if there's an improvement go back to your gp and be prepared to fight for a prescription or suck it up and pay.

Good luck

It definitely could be. Does he have a lot of wind? Pulling legs up etc? Does he sleep at night?

DD has CMPA - as PP said, the only way to find out is to cut out all dairy, so you'd need to get him on eg Wysoy SMA. But talk to your GP first. Also if you're still (even partially) breastfeeding you'd also need to cut out all dairy from your diet (this includes derivates like whey powder).

He’s fine by night he sleeps quite well only wakes up once, I’m quite happy to pay whatever it costs for him to be comfortable! I did think of trying him on it and then going to the gp and saying look this is working. I can get nutrimegian or however you spell it in my local chemist is this good or vile to taste too! Mind you his comfort milk is also vile I’ve tried that to see if he hates the taste!

I did also think about going dairy free myself and trying to express milk for him. Is there any way to boost my supply because at the minute I can get 10 mls a day 😞. Not enough to keep a hampster alive!

I would encourage you to try ranitidine to ‘exclude’ reflux before going down CMPA route. Gaviscon is useless for most people. Ranitidine might help.

If your baby is losing weight the GP should take notice! If dropping centiles I would ask for peads referral.

I meant to add- My DD was very similar ( and was dropping centiles) with silent reflux and we solved it with anti reflux formula and top dose ranitidine.

It's possible he is just a severely colicky / refluxy baby but even if that is the case it would at this stage be worth trying something stronger than gaviscon such as ranitidine or omeprazole. Unfortunately anti reflux medications do cause constipation.

With the mixed symptoms and weight loss, I think it is reasonably possible he has cows milk protein allergy and a trial of partially hydrolysed (broken down) milk would be worthwhile. An example is nutramigen milk.

Many babies with cows milk protein allergy are also allergic to soy protein so I would recommend avoiding soy based formula.

"Lactose free" formulas do nothing for CMPA (but a few GPs out there don't understand this).

Aptamil pepti is only very slightly hydrolysed and won't work for most babies with CMPA.

Oat and almold milks are not nutritious enough to feed babies with so avoid those.

Neocate milk is an amino acid formula (completely broken down so no protein structures to cause allergy). That's why it smells like fish. It is used for babies with severe allergy that are still symptomatic on a partially hydrolysed formula like nutramigen. But it is better to try something like nutramigen first as it is more palatable and reduces the risk of persistent allergy.

I think you should go back to the GP. Ideally try to see a GP with a paediatric interest. If you can't get any sense out of them ask them if they can refer you to the paediatrician or if they can call the paediatrician for advice. It sounds awful but if there is a time of day that your baby is worst bring them to the GP at that time.

Depending on their assessment of your baby it might make sense either to step up the reflux treatment or switch to something like nutramigen and then review in say a week (unfortunately it can take a week or two for symptoms to get better after the switch).

Sometimes it's best not to make too many changes at once as it is difficult to then work out which treatment plan has made the difference. Your baby losing weight is serious and your GP shouldn't ignore it.

Thank you everyone! I have a gp appointment again this week so I will bang onto them again. I’m taking him to be weighed in a hour to see what’s happened there, he’s had a really bad cold so the weight loss could be down to that I’ll find out soon!