Formula questions!

[spanishroots]

Hi! I have had my 8 month old baby on Aptamil Comfort since very early on due to colic. He was fine on it until we started weaning and now we find he is very constipated all of the time. We think it may be because the formula is thicker and food is thick too so it's just a bit much. We do get him to drink water in between feeds and with meals so he gets quite a lot of hydration but is always passing hard, pebble like stools. We are thinking of trying him on Aptamil 2 follow on milk as it's thinner but it doesn't say anywhere that it's nutritionally complete - which is obvs important as his milk should be his main source of nutrition until he's 1. Not sure if anyone has any tips for which formula would be best alongside weaning and if we should just go with Aptamil 1 instead of 2? Thanks

I am not an expert but I understand from my health visitor that milk is not considered a nutritionally complete diet after 6 months as babies need to be starting to wean at this time - which is perhaps why the follow on milks are not labelled nutritionally complete. Could you get in contact with your health visitor again if you are worried, I know it is difficult at the moment? The only thing that helps my DS when this happens is increasing his fibre rich foods like prune puree!

The follow on milk probably won’t help with the constipation as it’s higher in iron. You can use number 1 milk until 12 months.

What about prunes? We give prunes daily when constipated.

I don’t think that follow on milk is lacking anything, it’s just that milk alone isn’t nutritionally complete for babies over 6 months. That said, it contains more iron than stage 1 formula so I would probably avoid if your LO suffers from constipation.

Follow on milk can be too harsh on the stomach and it’s not recommended. I would try moving to normal Apitmil first milk. How much food is your lo getting? At 8 months they should only be having 2 meals a day.

Agree that I'd avoid first stage milk because of the high iron abs constipation, it's only likely to make things worse.

I'd also try him with a different brand of formula as there have been so many posts on MN about babies having reflux like symptoms with Aptamil over the past few months.

How about trying him with Hipp Organic?