CMPA symptoms ?

[feliztime]

My beautiful baby is now 4 months and it's only now coming to the surface that he may have CMPA (cows milk protein allergy) it's either this, or reflux. Or maybe something else?

Baby was on cow and gate for the first 6 weeks and he was doing great apart from the pooing once a week, he was always screaming as if he was in severe pain so we took him to the doctor, the dr said it's not constipation, even though he's pooing once a week his poos are soft when he does go (which makes sense) so it's not constipation. The dr diagnosed him with colic and reassured me colic symptoms will be gone by 3 months (still the same symptoms now at 4 months) he then randomly started spewing a LOT like all of what he drunk.

I changed him to cow and gate colic & constipation to see if anything would ease, nothing changed apart from he pooed more frequently. I got in contact with the health visitor and explained everything she said it sounds like baby has reflux and said I should give him an anti reflux milk.

At 8 weeks he started taking aptamil anti reflux and it was great. He stopped spewing completely, he poos everyday, the screaming stopped for a FEW days. Fast forward 8 weeks, he's spewing a lot again. Even though this milk is designed to stay down.

In the last 2 weeks he has developed eczema & it's quite bad. He always came out in random rashes although nothing major & has always had a random red face.

He's still having screaming matches most days I'm talking inconsolable crying as if he's sore , there's been times I've nearly took him to hospital as I literally cannot settle him.

I got in contact with the DR & health visitor there working together for a solution.

I will hear from them in the morning.

From your experience how did you know your baby had reflux or an allergy to their formula?

So basically baby's symptoms are

Colic?
Eczema - red
Red dots on belly
Often hear baby's belly gurgling
Reflux - constantly brings up feeds
Inconsolable crying

Would I know by now?

I just want my baby to be okay and comfortable I feel awful

It does sound like the symptoms of CMPA to me @feliztime

My daughter was diagnosed with reflux at 6 weeks and allergies at 4.5 months. She has allergies in addition to reflux although the allergies make it worse. Her reflux wasn't adequately treated until 4.5 months as the GP was undertreating it.

My daughter didn't move to formula until 10 months I was breastfeeding at diagnosis and had to cut foods out of my diet.

There are two varieties of formula. You usually start on an extensively hydrolysed formula which has broken down dairy in it. You try this first and some times have to try two. If the broken down dairy still triggers a reaction there are amino acid formulas which are completely dairy free but have all the components of dairy and everything they need in. These formulas can be thin which triggers reflux so often thickeners are required too.

It took high dose reflux treatment to bring my daughters reflux undercontrol and she is very sensitive to foods. She's 3 now and still struggles with reflux and we haven't made any progress with reintroducing foods but this isn't typical and most children grow out of allergies and reflux by 1-2