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FAO siany
in Baby
Am I right in thinking your LO has a milk allergy?
How did you know? What were his symptoms?
Basically, the boys were diagnosed with silent reflux but I dont think this is the case. This is mainly because the main symptom - not liking being flat - isnt a major issue with them. They dont like it but will tollerate it. The Enfamil AR made no difference other than making them really constipated so, after 4 days and only 2 poos (rather than 3 a day!) we put them back on the comfort. They will drink this but we still have problems.
They suffer with what I can only presume is tummy ache (bringing knees up, crying, arching back), their poos are very dark green and verry runny/slimy, they struggle to finish a feed - spitting teat out, spitting milk back up - and they have been very sicky. Alfie also has a very nasty rash on his face that Aqueous cream just wont shift (in fact its quite angry at the moment, and looks sore). Ryan doesnt have this, but then he doesnt show the symptoms half as bad as Alfie does.
They are gaining weight well though (about 1/2lb a week still). They were 4 weeks prem which may be a factor??
Does this sound familiar? If so, do you have any advice with regards to talking to drs??
Thanks in advance
Gemma, Alfie and Ryan (12 weeks today!)
How did you know? What were his symptoms?
Basically, the boys were diagnosed with silent reflux but I dont think this is the case. This is mainly because the main symptom - not liking being flat - isnt a major issue with them. They dont like it but will tollerate it. The Enfamil AR made no difference other than making them really constipated so, after 4 days and only 2 poos (rather than 3 a day!) we put them back on the comfort. They will drink this but we still have problems.
They suffer with what I can only presume is tummy ache (bringing knees up, crying, arching back), their poos are very dark green and verry runny/slimy, they struggle to finish a feed - spitting teat out, spitting milk back up - and they have been very sicky. Alfie also has a very nasty rash on his face that Aqueous cream just wont shift (in fact its quite angry at the moment, and looks sore). Ryan doesnt have this, but then he doesnt show the symptoms half as bad as Alfie does.
They are gaining weight well though (about 1/2lb a week still). They were 4 weeks prem which may be a factor??
Does this sound familiar? If so, do you have any advice with regards to talking to drs??
Thanks in advance
Gemma, Alfie and Ryan (12 weeks today!)
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Replies
yep, ds has a milk allergy/intolerance
from the day he was born he wld scream (and i don't eman cry i mean pain type scream) all day, be sick almost constantly, usually a huge projectile type vomit followed by bits and pieces thru out til the enxt feed then wld start again, his tummy was permanently solid, green poo (runny but i was bfeeding so quite normal), arching back and eventually weight loss. . both OH and I were lactose intolerant as babies so we figured it was quite likely to be that. at 3 weeks we introduced a formula feed and things got a bit worse, then upped it to 2 ffs and switched those to comfort, doctors and hv's constantly saying it was reflux and colic, he was prescribed infant gaviscon but this made him constipated on top of everything, our hv then said that we shld try huingry baby as she thought it possible he was hungry so drinking more than he cld handle and then bringing that up (bare in mind everytime we saw a health professionl we mentioned the history of milk problems) so we tried that but his sick was then coming up all curdled so obv his tummy had tried to digest it and failed, the following week is weight hadn't budged (he'd only been putting on tiny amounts as it was and was only 6lb12 at birth anyway so small to start) so took him off that and put him back on the comfort, the following week his weight was the still the same, so asked hv what we shld do (very teary in middle of weigh and stay) and she just said talk to gp (argghh) so spoke to gp who said speak to hv and get him weighed again, by this time he was 16 weeks old and had continually been going in circles, i didn't see my hv again as the following week we moved house, and consequently doctor catchment etc, thank goodness! first thing i did was get an appointment for him at the new gp, who before we even mentioned family history was writing out a prescription for soya formula (sma wysoy) we started him on that and i cut out all dairy from my diet too, within possibly 36-48 hours he was a completely differnet baby, it was unbelieveable the change in him, laughing smiling, next to no crying, and most of all absoultely no sick! woohoo! his weight started to go climb back up and it was fantastic, hwoever, 6 weeks later he started being sick again, but this time it was just sick and hard tummy no grouchiness or anything, so we were referred to a dietician (particulalry as we were at weaning stage then and hadn't a clue what i shld be doing in regards to that) so she said that in babes under 6 months (ds at this point was aboiut 1 week from 6months) and are allergic to cows milk are likely (altho not always) to develop similar problems with soya if before 6 months, so she prescribed him nutrimagen instead, so we try that and it gets a whole lot worse and he developed a rash on the back of his head and neck and across his stomach, back to gp who puts him back on soya for now until paediatrician appointment, at 6.5months we see the paediatricrian who then says that as he's now over 6 months then his tummy shld be able to tolerate the soya and too keep him on that as it was so far the best milk we had tried. within two weeks the sick and next to stopped agin, and now at 9 months he's very very rarely sick (and if he is its usually OH playing with him too soon after a feed lol) he's till on soya formula and i'm dreading february when they'll want to start trying to see if he can tolerate cows milk again i'd prefer to just leave him on soya until he's much older and try then.
one of the reasons my old docs etc thought it was reflux was because he wld also be sick after water, but my now gp has pointed out that if ur tummy is inflamed and sore already from having something it doesn't like in it it won't be able to keep anything in it. also whether ds was flat or upright made no difference, we always tried to keep him as upright as possible when awake and he was still sick. a skin rash is quite common if there is a food allergy, they usually go hand in hand. my only advice re doctors is if u think they're fobbing u off then get another opinion, if we hadn't have moved no doubt ds wld still be in pain and bringing up entire feeds, and i no doubt wld've lost the plot by now. if u think it cld be a milk allergy (its most likely an allergy as opposed to an intolerance and intolerances don't usually bring rashes with them) then u cld ask ur doctor to prescribe on a possible trial basis a dairy free formula (not just lactose free as that will still contain cows milk protein and like i said a lactose intolerance wldn't usually provoke a rash) and see how that goes (i don't know what enfamilAR is tho sorry) but as far as i'm aware soya ff is the only type that is completely dairy free all the others contain some form of reconditioned protein, sugars, whey etc etc but i may be wrong there.
also with regards to prematurty, i'm not sure about that, but ds was born by em c section at 40+6 and there is a school of thought that as baby passes thru the birth canal they pick up some anti bodies, and if born by c scetion they don't get these, so that cld be a contributing factor in food allergy terms, (altho i have no idea how ur two boys were born), but it is true amongst thos ei know in real life, but cld just be a coincidence.
not sure i've answered any of ur questions amo,gst that giant waffle lol, but if u have any thing else u'd like to know or i've missed something out then feel free to ask
hth xxx
My little one is a milk protein introlent (?) and is on cow and gate PEPTI first infant milk (only availiable from a chemist) but she never devolped this allergy until she was 4-6 weeks old and her symptoms were a rash on her face and crying out in pain, but since she has been on the new milk she is fine thank god.
if i was u i would demand an allergy test for her and tell the doc you want it done straight away.
( i unfortunaly didn't think the rash (i thought it was heat rash) or the pain ( again thought it was just wind pain) was anything two seroius and waited until her 6 weeks checkup and the min the doc seen her face said that is what was wrong her.
And now she a happy healthy and spoilt little girl.
Hope this helps too
cha&nicolexxx
Well, we are doing ok on the Comfort milk. Some bottles are better than others and Alfie has started being sick much more (they have never been sicky babies) so im thinking the intollerance may be the way to go. I just get so annoyed that the Drs seem to have no idea what they are talking about and rely so much on me to tell them what I think it wrong. The Enfamil AR (siany - its specialist anti-reflux milk which basically means its heavier and thicker!) made them so constipated and I couldnt get them to take water from a bottle. The constipation was worse than the previous symptoms so we gave up on the Enfamil. Alfie's rash comes and goes but some days its so bad that it actually bleeds. This is despite me covering him in aqueaous cream daily. He also brought up what looked like water the other day, 2 hours after his feed, which makes me think reaction of some sort.
Siany - thanks SO much for taking the time to write such a detailed reply. It made me think of so many more things. His poos are green (although this seems to be improving on the comfort milk), he is often uncomfortable and refuses milk. However, he is nowhere near as bad as it sounds like your LO was so, if it is an allergy, which I think it might be, it is much less severe than your LO.
Thanks again. Ill be speaking to the Dr at our next appointment about the rash and allergy testing, even if it is just to rule it out.