Hi All,
I’m starting this thread purely so others might find it useful, since I found nothing online detailing similar experiences that I’ve had with my DD.
Baby Boy has always been formula fed, and we’ve had a complete nightmare working out what is wrong with his tummy. He is nearly 4 months.
Since he was approx 4 weeks old, he has been an uncomfy, writhy, grunty feeder which peaked at 3 months when he refused the bottle. After a trip to the doctors he was diagnosed with potential CMPA (intolerance, not allergy) as he had accompanying eczema, snotty nose, horrific wind, painful poos.
The pepti 1 milk was vile and where I think it was so thin, it made him incredibly hungry, resulting in him constantly wanting to feed, then becoming uncomfortable again, and refusing the bottle.
after speaking with friends they said give goats milk formula a go. So I tried Kendamil Goat as I was desperate for him to drink something and it was available in supermarkets. Immediately the symptoms improved, the eczema died down, sleep massively improved, the number of poos drastically reduced etc etc but I noticed his gas got worse over time, and he would still be really uncomfortable for 2 out of his 5 feeds in the day, and struggled to poo.
After much research, I discovered that in a lot of formulas they add something called ‘GOS’ which stands for galacto-oligosaccharides — a type of prebiotic fibre added to many infant formulas, including Kendamil Goat.
What it does:
• It’s a carbohydrate that babies can’t fully digest themselves
• Instead, it passes through to the large intestine, where gut bacteria (particularly beneficial ones like bifidobacteria) ferment it
• This fermentation is meant to mimic the prebiotic effect of oligosaccharides naturally found in breast milk, encouraging a healthier gut microbiome
so I thought this may be the cause of the gas and pain.
NannyCare goat formula does not contain this…..
24 hours later after a straight switch over I have a different baby, and he’s just done his first ‘normal’ poo of his life, no mucus, no pain, no crying, no grunting, no smell.
Other things we tried:
infacol - I think this made it worse once it had built up in his system
probiotic drops (Kendamil)
I’ll report back with future updates but I really hope this might help another struggling mum or dad - I sobbed today in relief that I might have finally sussed it!