Hi moms! So if you've been following my questions, my infant has had a rough go. Up until she was 5 months we couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. Thought it was colic, then reflux. We switched her to Alimentum formula after talking to a friend and after 3 weeks she quit fussing all the time, and grunting and was sleeping awesome! So she was eating solids and doing great. We though she had started to outgrow it and so with the formula being so expensive we chatted about switching to the next step down which was Similac Sensitive. Well about week 3 she started grunting, fussing while she ate, got a rash on her cheek and was becoming constipated with having a runny nose the entire time she was on sensitive. We have gone back to the Alimentum, but now iam worried that this really is some kind of allergy. So my question to you moms is have you had this problem before and if so what did you do? Should I ask the doctor to do an allergy test on her? Iam just worried about introducing more solids if I don't know what it is that is causing her this reaction. Any advice? Thanks moms! Hope the new year is treating all of you wonderful! Many blessings,
C.
My child had a milk protein allergy and was switched to Alimentum....it worked... please be carful with the constipation... my son got a hernia from the pushing... The cost of the formula is alot,, i would recommend that you try WIC. I had to do that.
My daughter had a milk protein allergy as an infant and we switched to soy and she was fine, but she didn't have any of the symptoms you describe. Had the soy formula not worked we would of been put on the Alimentum. I would talk to your pediatrician before making anymore formula changes. We discovered the allergy when we found blood in her stool. As for the testing, my pediatrician tested her stool. All I had to do was bring her a dirty diaper and then test three dirty diapers at home. It was easy test and painless on my daughter. The good news is my daughter eventually outgrew her allergy and was on whole milk at 13 months. My pediatrician said that most kids outgrow it.
Give it some time. Our first son had a milk/soy protein intolerance. He was on Elecare (a prescription amino acid based formula). At 9 months our pediatric GI dr recommended that we try to transition him very slowly over to a milk based formula. We gave him 1 bottle of 1 scoop of milk based formula and he reacted. So we went back to the Elecare. At 12 months our dr recommended that we go to rice milk rather than cows milk. By 18 months he was able to drink cows milk and have dairy in his diet. And shockingly enough, now at 3.5 if he has too much milk he gets backed up!
I'm not sure why, but in most cases they will outgrow this sensitivity.
Both my kids had symptoms like your describing, especially my first one. Stay with the Alimentum and maybe try soy. My dd can have it, my ds can't. He is only 8 mo old now, so he hasn't grown out of it, but she did just fine. They can have pretty much any food they want except for dairy, milk, yogurt, and cheese. We used goat milk when we needed to, Trader Joe's is great, and goat cheese when we needed cheese. She outgrew it by about 13-14 months and now has no restrictions at all. I am hoping her brother will do the same thing, but he can't have any soy formula. I haven't limited his solid foods at all, except the normal foods babies can't have yet, nuts, fish, etc. and of course dairy. He did fine with goat milk and likes it so we are on to cheese next. I wouldn't do an allergy test yet because what she can eat today will be different this time next year. Wait and see. Oh, and when we switched from formula to milk we did lactaid and it was ok. Good luck!
Sure sounds like an allergy. Many but not all babies outgrow milk allergies between 12 and 18 months. I would suggest you keep your child dairy-free until then. Then, talk with the pediatrician about the next step in either testing for allergies or the best way to re-introduce potentially allergy-causing foods before you do it.
The rash is a clear sign that an allergy is at play. My son has horribly colicky (and breastfed). He never really got better until I stopped breastfeeding. Turns out he had multiple food allergies. After a very scary reaction to some egg when he was about 8 mos old, we were referred to an allergist. That was when we found about the other allergies he had and the severity. The peanut was the most shocking. We never fed him nut products, but if we had or he had been exposed indirectly, it might have lethal. I had no idea...
If you suspect an allergy (which this sounds like to me) go to an allergist or ask your pediatrician for a referral. It's not an unreasonable request, and it's better to know than not to know.
