Nutramigen experiences

[Liland]

Hi there,

We've been prescribed nutramigen for my 8 week old following a long line of feeding problems. He's also been taking ranatidine 3x a day for a few weeks which has helped immensely with his reflux pain.

Just wondering if anyone had any tips with this formula, particularly around constipation (LO seems prone to it) and getting him to actually drink it (apparently it tastes very different, I saw vanilla extract mentioned somewhere?).

The first batch is cooling in the fridge now so we've yet to try it. LO has been desperately latching onto his bottles, taking a few sucks, and then screaming bloody murder and refusing any more, and we've been building up to this for a while now. I've had to give him water just to keep him hydrated. It's getting a little overwhelming for me and DP just trying to keep him fed, and the HV at his weigh in yesterday was very disaproving of his falling down a percentile and told me to feed him more...

Hello

My DD has been on this since she was also 8 weeks old. She's been a new baby since. She's never had a problem taking the milk but she's not fussy with any food. The milk does taste absolutely disgusting compared to normal formula. She also suffers with constipation but I've never connected it with the milk... I always thought it was a food allergy that we're waiting for tests on.

I'm not sure what you can put in the milk to make it taste better though? Sorry that wasn't much help x

For what it's worth my Dd will only drink this formula quite cool or room temp never warm which she did with other milk. Worth trying that? Maybe speak to your HV or GP to ask about the vanilla extract?

He's taken the first bottle no problems, thank goodness, so taste doesn't seem to be an issue.

devilchild, what do you do about the constipation?

@Liland

Well DD is on solids now so she's just on a high fibre diet but it's not quite enough so we're waiting on a dietician appointment as I believe she has other allergies that aren't being picked up.

How often does LO go? My LO can easily go 3 days without a poo

My DD loved this stuff and she was EBF up to that point apart from 1 bottle of cow and gate that she didn't really like. She took it as well as she took expressed milk! Tasted foul to me and did not go at all well with baby cereal when we weaned. Was apparently acceptable with weetabix though - not that I'd know, weetabix is also foul-.

No idea with constipation I'm afraid, my 2 have always had the opposite problem!

If it's CMPI causing the constipation (it was for DD) then hopefully the right milk will help. Nutraimgen helped but saw a dramatic improvement once she was moved onto Neocate. I used to give her an oz of cooled boiled water twice a day on top to help speed things along. Check with hv/GP first though; we had no weight problems so might not be the best idea if LO is not gaining weight or drinking enough milk

He goes every 3 days roughly, but I'm guessing since he hasn't had much milk in the last 24 hours it may well be a while. He's not currently constipated, the consistency is fine anyway, but he was really constipated on anti reflux milk. I've no idea why it's so infrequent.

DS was on this from the age of 9 months. He was and still is (he's a teenager now) a very fussy eater but he was able to make the switch and quite old at 9 months so hopefully it'll be less tricky for you.

DS just had to accept that that there would be no more breast milk. He protested madly initially and then loved it and we had to make meals from it too. It stank the house out and the dishwasher was great for removing the oily texture and horrid smell.

I don't remember he had constipation as a result of the formula but we were told by the dietician to add spoonfuls of olive oil to his food to help increase his weight and I think that kept him regular. When he was potty training he became constipated and we used Lactulose for that.

Good luck.

Hello, we started weaning at 4.5 months, with the nutrimagen and neocate , we added prune juice to the milk and gradually diluted it over time until he got used to the taste, helps the constipation As well! If I can remember rightly they can have an ounce for every month they've turned so 2 months is 2oz juice a day and 3 month 3oz etc, so it was only like 5 or 10ml each bottle x

Unclogged him and tasted better!