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Food Allergy
sdb421
member
Cold turkey or gradual change?
sdb421
member
in Food Allergy
My son is 3.5 months old and has always been a difficult eater. Looking back, I now wish that I hadn't given up BFing and now that we are having so many issues with feeding, I feel really bad that I didn't push through our issues to continue nursing. With 2 toddlers at home, I just couldn't keep up with BFing a screaming infant and he initially took to formula well, so we made the switch. Anyway, that is beside the point...For about a month now, he's been refusing feeds, taking 2 ounces and then not eating anymore. He has no other symptoms (isn't fussy, no rashes aside from baby acne, no vomiting), but we are medicating for possible silent reflux, to see if that helps, which it hasn't yet (3 weeks in). GI has recommended we do a two week trial of Alimentum to see if maybe he has MSPI and that is causing feeding refusal. My question is, do I switch him cold turkey (which I tried this morning and he wouldn't really eat much) or do I mix formulas for a while? Is there any harm in switching cold turkey? Will it cause additional stomach upset? Thank you for any tips or advice!
M/C #1 - BFP-1/16/08 Dx Blighted Ovum-2/4/08 D&C-2/8/08 @ 7 weeks
M/C #2 - BFP-3/31/08 Early M/C-4/10/08 @ 5 weeks
M/C #3 - BFP-6/31/08 Early M/C-7/13/08 @ 5.5 weeks
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Cold turkey or gradual change?
You can try to mix it. It shouldn't hurt. It takes a while to find what works. Are you adding rice cereal to formula? That helps with reflux. Especially since the more broken down the formula the thinner it gets which means its worse on reflux. Adding 1tsp per oz of formula should help. Also I find my dd won't drink her elecare formula without the rice cereal. It stinks and I assume it tastes bad too. Be aware their poops are going to smell horrible!!! I mean worse than anything you have ever smelled in your life. And you mentioned baby acne. My ped said my dd had baby acne. Turns out it was horrible eczema. Not acne. As soon as we got her on elecare (alimentum didn't clear it up totally) she cleared right up. That was how we knew it was def an allergy. Keep trying with the formula. My dd refused it at the first feeding and a little at the second. She eventually gave up I guess. What med is baby taking for reflux? You should see it working after a wk. if its not working you need to call your GI doc and switch to something else. I'm warning you though they will prob only change one thing at a time so it's going to take a while. Hopefully one change will do it but it sounds like you may need to switch formula and meds. To give you an idea we tried 6 different formulas and are now on full baby dose of Prevacid (15 mg solutab daily) and we had to give dd maalox for bouts of tummy cramps and reflux.
Now the bf thing. It sounds like you still feel guilty. I get that. I feel guilty a bit too. Nobody told me breast milk is the best thing for a milk intolerance baby. Nobody thought my dd had milk allergy. I didn't even know how to eliminate dairy and my ex-ped said I didn't need to (she was horrible). Don't carry around too much guilt. Having a screaming baby and a 17 month old running around while I was trying to pump or bf was just too hard. I totally get it. Nobody can understand how horrible it was unless they go through it. My dd screamed during every burping, after every feeding and during car rides. Basically all day long. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to deal with. So I know. It sucks. Just focus on finding the right cocktail for your baby. Don't worry about the BM thing. It's done and done.
GL to you and keep at it. You should see a totally different baby when everything is working. And look into insurance covering alimentum or whatever you go on. A lot of states require ins companies to cover med necessary formula. And you may be in for a fight but do it. We pay 20% for elecare I can't imagine paying full price. It's crazy. So don't give up on getting that covered. Especially if you have a GI doc. They can write a letter.