Weaning a poss cows milk intolerant baby, awaiting paed appointment

[Jacksterbear]

DD is 6 mths exactly. On GP-prescribed Nutramigen (lactose free formula) as had weeks of diarrhoea, blood and mucus in poo etc.

We have been referred to paediatrician but not seeing him until late April.

GP and HV both pretty vague on weaning advice, other than wait til 6 months, avoid dairy and introduce new foods slowly.

Any advice or tips from anyone?

Their advice sounds right, but they could have been more specific.

It is usually advised to introduce new foods one at a time.
Begin with low-intolerance foods such as pureed vegetables and fruit.
Introduce new foods early in the day so that any reaction can be seen during the day, not at night.
Introduce new foods only once every 3 or 4 days.

Take your time, but try not to worry too much. Just enjoy exploring new tastes and textures with your DD.

Thanks Ruth that's helpful stuff.

Well, day 1 of baked sweet potato has been a success!

Excellent!
Weaning is a road of ups and downs, but it's great fun.
:)

Is DD better on Nutramigen? If you are still having problems, do go back to GP and ask for a different milk. Nutramigen still contains cows' milk, although it's been thoroughly processed. A lot of babies are fine with it, but some still have problems. 100% dairy free formulas are Neocate and Nutramigen AA. Don't feel you have to wait until the paed appointment for a change of milk if you feel it is necessary. You can buy them over the counter, but they are really expensive. I think about 35 for a 400g tin of Neocate and over 40 for Nutramigen AA.

Thanks cardamom, she is fine on the Nutramigen - the diarrhoea, blood and mucus stopped within hours of going on it (then GP then took her back off it and it all came back, then GP finally agreed to put her back on it! ).

Glad she is OK! Stupid GP though - grrrr!!! x

Hi my son is also on nutramigen aa - still being sick but not in any pain now as used to scream and ended up refusing Cow and Gate. I have just started weaning - one solid at a time but he still manages to bring the milk up. i am also waiting to see a dietician. DS now holds food down but still brings up milk even if he has had it an hour before the food - has anyone else experienced this?

Mooke, has your LO had gaviscon before & if so are you continuing with it in feeds? Mine still needed his reflux meds even once we'd sorting the milk side of things.

Jackster, if you've had your appointment hope it went well. If not yet, make sure you also get a referral to a dietician to help with weaning advice.

hwwwhite6 - we tried Gaviscon when he was on Cow and Gate and although it held the milk down it all came out the other end as he was feeding!! I dropped the Gaviscon when i changed to Nutramigen just to try one thing at a time! My HV has said that he may need something stronger - but as the sick does not bother him I am reluctant - he is being weighed on Tuesday so may reconsider then but the sick is constant! usually he brings up milk even if he has not fed for 2 hours!! Have you avoided foods with milk in when weaning?

Yes, we weaned dairy & soya free; ended up going wheat& gluten free too after 2 months. I went down the purée route & used annabel karmels complete meal planner for most ideas. You can just leave cheese out of most recipes, use their formula (nutramigen for us) for milk or yoghurt recipes. Get a tub of birds custard powder as it's DF, great for pudding if they haven't eaten well as it's another 3oz of milk in my eyes. (2.5tsp powder 3oz of formula, some fruit, job done!)
Fruit pots will be your saviour (as no yoghurt/fromage fraig).

Once you get started, it's not too difficult; there will be a few jars you can buy, but by stage 3, most things have cheese/milk added, so keep checking labels! Home cooking is likely to be easier in the long run, a slow cooker and a load of tiny tubs (ikea) will be your best friends!

When you get to a year, dietician will probably advise a challenge; we started with processed milk (cheese or yoghurt) and as long as it's only a small bit every few days, we can now do cheese! The menu has increased tremendously now! Still can't do gluten & haven't got round to soya yet, but it's positive progress.
He's 18m old and thriving, a right little character; his tiny brother seems to be following in his footsteps though, so doing it all again with the reflux, dairy allergy etc...
At least I've an idea what I'm doing this time round!

Hi hwhite6 - wow how old is your new little one! I know realise how lucky I was with my 5 year old she seemed to sail through - but is such a fussy eater now lol!
thanks for you advice it really helped. I have just seen HV and she said to try him on products with dairy but to really monitor it and record any changes. She said to also try him on a bottle of normal formula next week but if he reacts the same continue with Nutramigen and then try again next month. i am going to stay away from Cow and Gate and go and look at the others - must say though i am a little nervous as I don't want him to be in any pain again!

New one is 14wks, got reflux, probably milk allergy already, fallen off the chart already - so worse than big bro so far!

As far as challenging, pick one thing to do, keep a detailed diary of what goes on (their reaction may have changed from how it originally presented). If you think it's gone ok with a bit of cheese on monday lunch say, nothing apparent, try again on Wednesday. (If feeling brave and all has been fine you could try at w/end too, we didn't first time round). Following week do Monday again if still ok go for Tuesday too etc.
One thing we found with eldest, if he had a bit & was ok with it, having a break then going back to it he had a reaction.
We went back to his basic foods after the cheese challenge, left it a good fortnight, then tried a bit of yoghurt along the same principle (if we had failed the cheese, obviously wouldn't have gone further!). Working to that principle we spent ~1month for one item at challenge time. Haven't gone as far as proper liquid cows milk yet though, seeing dietician again next week for progress report... [not passed gluten challenge yet either... :( ]
That's about our experience of doing it, thankfully had good results, can cope if that's all we get though. Others will have done it differently, but this worked for us.
Hope it goes well with weaning/challenging etc.