CMPA / nutramigen

[Ifitistobesaid]

My 5 week old daughter was diagnosed yesterday with cows milk protein allergy after blood and mucus in her stool and lots of crying / distress after feeding. We were prescribed nutramigen formula and just gave her the first bottle and she seems as distressed and uncomfortable as before.

Has anyone experienced this with their baby? Did nutramigen work and if so how long did it take to work?

I am combination feeding with breastfeeding and expressed milk but her latch is really painful despite attempts to fix it so it is hard to breastfeed full time.

Have you excluded dairy from your diet if she has CMPA? The formula and exclusion from breast milk can take a few weeks as the dairy built up in their system needs to be got rid of. May also need a bit of trial and error with formula and see which one works for her.

Good luck!

I was going to ask too about removing dairy from your diet if CMPA is suspected.

If the latch is painful too, does she have signs of Tongue Tie?

Agree with above, I'd check for tongue tie from a specialist, not a HV/GP. And also agree you need to remove dairy from your diet.
The allergy formulas are also very thin so can cause reflux flare ups. The formulas are sometimes thickened but worth trying the above first as a thickener might not help if there's other causes.

If I’m not mistaken, Nutramigen is a hydrolysed formula, not totally dairy free, it may be that your little one needs totally dairy free. My little girl didn’t agree with the first (hydrolysed) formula we were given (her symptoms actually got worse!) but after a few hours on Neocate, she was a different baby!

Nutramigen is not completely dairy free. I went through this whole process with DS when he was small

Ask for NEOCATE

I wouldn't expect to see a difference on the first feed. It takes several days for all the dairy already in the gut to work its way out, and a couple of weeks for maximum effect.

Thanks all. She has had a few more bottles since and seems more comfortable so hoping she is starting to improve.

I have cut dairy out since the diagnosis but I’ve read it can take a while to clear my system?

re: the latch, yes she does have a posterior tongue tie but they don’t think it is causing the issues. I might push for a referral or see a private lactation consultant

Speaking as someone who has an LO with a TT that was diagnosed late, I would really push for this to be divided. We had years of sleepless nights, problems with weaning and speech therapy.

@Ifitistobesaid what is your feeding situation now? Our boy is 3.5 weeks old and we're in an identical situation.

@Frogglingalong she’s 17 weeks now and still on nutramigen and breastfeeding.

It took awhile to see a difference - I’d say two weeks - but she’s much better now. Most of her symptoms such as the blood on stools, wheezing and the face rash went completely but her poo is still mucousy. The paediatrician said that was ok as overall there had been improvement and not to mess with her gut further by changing to something like neocate.

The only thing now is that she has a lot of spit up, both after formula and breast milk. I haven’t really had much advice on what to do about that other than feed little and often but that’s not always achievable.

I also had her tongue tie snipped and it made
some difference to the pain I was having but not totally. I did try to breastfeed almost exclusively after the diagnosis but my baby lost weight. I saw a lactation consultant and did some weighted feeds
and I don’t produce enough milk unfortunately. But I still breastfeed and pump as much as I can so she’s about 50% breast milk / 50% nutramigen.

@Ifitistobesaid a thickener can help with minimising spit up. Carobel on prescription or you can buy things like Magic Mix (not cheap).

I found they constipated my little girl and was only using around half the recommended amount, so stopped after a week. We moved to HIPP organic after research and she's been so much more settled on that. Obviously it wasn't CMPA for her, but just sharing our experience - best of luck!