MSPI moms, come on in!

hepcats

My LO was diagnosed with MSPI a little over 5 weeks ago. Since then, he has been on Nutramigen. He has done really well with this formula until about a week ago. I thought his fussiness was maybe due to a growth spurt (he doesn't hit them at the "right" times because he's a preemie) or because he dropped an overnight feed and I might be underfeeding him. However, he still seems a bit fussy and won't always finish his bottle. He's definitely not having the same reaction he had to my tainted milk or to regular formula though. No bloody or mucousy stools, no hives, some slight congestion but nothing major at all, no arching back and crying out in pain.

For those of you had to switch to Neocate because Nutramigen or Alimentum didn't work, was there a 5 week lag in issues?? What were their continuing issues? LO is still gaining weight well - he put on over a pound in the past 2 weeks.

Spartanmama722

For us we noticed Alimentum wasn't working after about 2 weeks. For about a week or two LO did well, was less gassy and fussy. And then his gas started back up, he started spitting up more, the mucus in his stool increased, and he went back to being really fussy after eating. Our pedi said in our case it could have either been that LO was truly still reacting to something in the Alimentum, or that his digestive tract was just too irritated to tolerate the Alimentum and needed a less allergenic formula in order to heal. Either way, we switched to the Neocate and there was an immediate difference.

There were definitely never any weight issues with LO though - in fact he was always a really great gainer, his pedi thinks because he was eating constantly to try to soothe his stomach.

Good luck! Hopefully it isn't still an allergy, although on the plus side if you do have to switch to Neocate it at least smells MUCH better than Nutramigen/Alimentum .

BC&MM

We switched to Alimentium from Nutramigen because DS just wasn't taking the N great. He was still a little fussy and just not that happy. We never had a weight problem. Now he is completely comfortable and fine on Alimentium

Rachel*Neocate

Every baby is different so it is hard to say when or if a LO is going to need an elemental formula, like Neocate.  However, you did mention that you?ve seen an increase in your LO's fussiness and congestion, so it is possible that your LO has started reacting to the milk protein chains still found in Nutramigen,  Nutramigen is a hydrolysate formula meaning that it still contains milk proteins just partially broken down to make it easier for your LO to digest.  More sensitive MSPI babies (like mine!) need an elemental formula which are made up of free amino-acids (the building blocks of protein) basically doing all the work for your LO.  It doesn't hurt to talk to your ped and see what they say about switching. 

I hope your LO feels better soon!