Milk allergy and reflux... will it ever end!

[Babymamma93]

My son was born at 35 weeks, he's now 12 weeks old.

He has always vomited loads during his feeds, very unsettled with wind, arching of the back, screaming in pain and not pooping for 3-5 days at a time.

When he was a month old the doctor prescribed Gaviscon and Aptamil Pepti 1 which did nothing. He then prescribed Laxido for his bowels and that made him even more unsettled although he was pooping every other day.

We paid to see a private doctor a few weeks ago and were told they thought he had a milk protein allergy so he's been on SMA Althera for a week.

He does seem a little more settled and he has been pooping everyday however he is still so sick and still has a rash after feeds. He has just been prescribed Omeprazole for the reflux but im wondering whether he needs the Amino Acid based formula ??? how long should I wait to see results from the SMA Althera milk? It's been a week and not much change.

Please help! It's so upsetting seeing him so unhappy.

If he's getting a rash I'd ask for the Amino based formula now. It sounds as though he's allergic to another ingredient in the milk.

Have you been referred to a Paediatric Dietician and the Allergy Clinic?

@PritiPatelsMaker we are currently seeing a paediatric gastro enterologist, we haven't seen a dietician yet. We were told he couldn't have a skin prick allergy test until he's 4 months old so we've got a months wait. We started the Omeprazole yesterday but his vomiting seems worse? Is this normal?

Pepti 1 worked for my son. It took a while for symptoms to settle. I would say pepti 1 made a massive difference but it took around 6 weeks for his rash to settle and his explosive nappies only really settled after 10 weeks. His projectile vomiting improved very quickly after pepti 1 and he definitely seemed much more comfortable, less stomach pain and wind. I had my son at 34 weeks so I understand how awful it is. Our GP said you would know whether the formula is working or not in 2 weeks so maybe give it another week? You should be referred to paediatric allergy team by your GP.

I was at my wits end with my son’s reflux & he was prescribed every paediatric medication available with little success.

He would vomit so hard after feeds he’d easily hit the wall 6ft away.

His health visitor suggested using a dummy; the reasoning is that sucking produces saliva, so your baby has to continuously swallow, strengthening structures of the GI tract into the stomach.

I’ll be honest, I was anti dummies, but was desperate (he wasn’t gaining weight well, was miserable).

Within a month the reflux had settled (he was about 4 months by now) & he naturally stopped using the dummy at about a year (as he got more mobile & chatty, to be fair at 30 he‘s never stopped talking lol).

This is old advice because I’m an old fart, so please take it with a pinch of salt, but it was almost magical!

Pepti worked for my LO for about 4 weeks but same as yours the rash was becoming crazy and started to cover him, he also was not opening his bowels and still had bad reflux. He got moved to Neocate LCP - amazing stuff he has a dirty nappy everyday the only thing is his reflux is still so so bad. We have tried gaviscon, omeprozol, lansoprazole - nothing at all seems to help and i’m fed up. But the milk i would defo push for

It will get better I promise.
we started off on Nutramigen and it worked in the beginning for a couple of weeks until we started seeing symptoms come back (lots of wind, explosive nappies, skin rash etc) and got moved to neocate.
That pretty much solved all the digestive problems but he did still have reflux. Terrible reflux actually.
we tried gaviscon which he was on for the first four months of his life and omeprazole around month 3 I think.
so omeprazole won’t stop the reflux but should stop the pain associated with the acid coming back up.
Omeprazole works great for some but the higher the dose the more tummy discomfort it can cause as well as an increase in wind so it is a fine balance between helping the acid reflux and causing more issues tummy-wise.
The gaviscon also made him so constipated that in the end we felt both medications were creating more problems than helping and since he was on the correct formula we decided to take him off the omeprazole and gaviscon at 5 months and just accept the sick everywhere as it was no longer bothering him.
Once we started weaning and he strengthened his core muscles and could sit up unaided, all the reflux stopped. This was probably around 7 months.
you could try carobel thickener instead of gaviscon but that also doesn’t agree with all babies and with ours it seemed to cause him a lot of wind and discomfort every time we added it.
we were also prescribed lactulose for the constipation but I was not happy with adding medication on top of medication for none of them to really help and again the Infant Feeding team at our hospital said, can cause discomfort and wind.
I would definitely request an amino acid formula like neocate and give that a go though.