Baby Formula Question?
Ok this might be a book but your help is appreciated.
My daughter is 9 weeks old. She started off on enfamil regular with lipil(milk based, their closest formula to breast milk). This formula was causing her to projectile vomit. They did an upper gi and ultrasound to make sure everything inside was working well and it is so the vomiting was attributed to the formula possibly because of a milk allergy. The doctor then put her on enfamil prosobee soy based formula which constipated her really bad and made her stool very large and hard. We tried dark karo syrup, prune juice and neither would soften up her stool(a couple times it made her butt bleed). The doctor then put her on enfamil gentlease, a formula that has the milk lactose partially broken down for easier digestion(not fully broken down though so thus not lactose free). This formula proceeded to make her projectile vomit also. I just called the doctor and told her this and she told me to put her back on the prosobee soy based formula that constipates her.
My issue with this is that
A) no matter what we try to do to soften her stool when she is on the soy, it is still hard and I am afraid it will cause more trauma to her rectum.
B) We heard the doctor tell another patient in the next room over that there are an increasing number of babies on soy formula and soy is not good for babies.
C) It seems to me that she has a allergy to lactose and that if we gave her another enfamil product called lactofree which is milk based but lactose free, it would solve our constipation(no soy) and vomiting(no lactose) problems.
What should I do? Put her on the lactofree on my own?
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I would ask the Dr about the lactofree. I definitely would not go with the soy if it causes that much distress.
Doctors no a lot but you no your daughter better.
If you feel it will help..then i won’t hurt. If you see an improvement let the doctor no, if nothing changes then try something else.
Have you tryed similac? It might not be the milk it could be something else in Enfamil..
Similac can be soy or milk based..
Hope i helped! GOOD LUCK!!
I wish you luck with your daughter. I can’t tell you what to do but if I were experiencing this with my son, I would try the lactofree on my own. You will know fairly quickly if it helps or you still have problems. I hope it all works out for you.
im surprised your dr went to soy so quickly
we were having problems so we went from regular formula to partial broken down and have seemingly won with similac lactose free, the next step would have been soy
try lactose free and good luck
Try Enfamil’s Nutragiem…..it is your baby and you know more than the doctor about what is going on with her. It is true what you heard your doctor say about soy….it is usually last choice.
You can try it. Sometimes it just takes finding the right formula and everything works it self out. Both my daughters ended up on similac isomil soy formula. I have never heard that soy is bad for babies, both my daughters are doing great! You may want to try switching brands, if the formula you mentioned doesn’t work out. It may be an intolerance to something in the brand you are using. They say to give it several days before you know if it works, so I would try to switch her if it works next time your at the doctor just tell them that you switched her to whatever formula it is. good luck.
Okay. My son is allergic to diary also. He was on soy based formula and did fine with it. My concern about putting your daughter on the lactofree formula is that it still has dairy in it. There is a difference between lactose intolerant and being allergic to dairy. I would call your doctor again to find out if there is a different formula that you can use that is dairy free. maybe a different brand of the soy might work better.
Not that your daughter has this, but just in case you have trouble in the future…..my son was throwing up (projectile) even after he was off all dairy. That’s because he had something called Eosinophilic Esophagutus (aka-EE). The dairy allergy caused this. It’s when the esophagus is swollen and can’t pass food through to the stomach properly. The only way to know if your child has it is through a scope. Medicine took care of it and he is fine now and is completely off all dairy. It only took the doctors 2 years to figure it all out. Hopefully this wont happen to your daughter.
my dr suggested alimentium formula but it’s milk based and it caused horrible diarrhea.
How bad is the vomiting? My daughter was on Emfanil with iron, and me being a first time mom she spit up and vomit and couple of times and I panicked. I called the doctor and we switched formulas 3 times in about a month. Poor girl. I finally followed my heart and switched back to her regular formula and she is doing fine. If she is throwing up all the time and not gaining weight it is a concern, but I dont know how much she is throwing up, so make your decision on that, if it isnt a lot and all the time and it seems like she is gaining weight and growing I would go back on the regular formula.
If the doctor tells you to go on soy, and then tells another parent that soy is bad, maybe get a second opinion? I wouldnt like that and would consider finding another doctor, its what I would do.
I was like your daughter when I was a baby, always throwing up, and its hard, so my parents (this was 21 years ago) gave me whole milk because they just couldnt find formula I could keep down.
My advice is to follow your heart, if you think that formula will be best then I would try it. But remember it takes a baby about a week for their bodies to adjust to formula. So if it seems like she is having trouble, dont switch right away. Let it take a week thats what my doctor says, and it makes sense.
I dont know how long you waited in between different formulas, but think if you allowed time for her body to adjust to the.
I hope I helped and as a mom i always suggest following your heart, you obv care enough for your daughter to be concerned so you wouldnt do anything you feel will harm your child.
(the doctor told me to switch to another formula I followed my heart and went back to her orginal and she is doing great, sometimes doctors dont know because the information they get from you they may take it wrong, you may explain it wrong, or they are not around the child all day to see what you see. As a first time mom I know I exraggarated when it came to my daughter because I just didnt know.)
My daughter has to use Similac Sensitive, I dont know what the equivilent is in Enfamil. I used to work at a pediatricians office and he would say here are these three formulas (and give samples) try A first for at least a full week, if the problems persist try B and so on and so on. Usually the last formula was a hypoallergenic formula like Nutramigen (cost a fortune). I would try the Lactofree at least for a full week and if it doesnt work try the pediatrician again. sounds like you might want to see if your pediatrician has another partner in the office that you could see to get a second opinion.
First off, babies are never lactose intolerant, and it’s not possible to be ‘allergic’ to lactose (Lactose is a sugar, and people are never allergic to sugar.) Babies who can’t handle milk-based formulas are allergic to the proteins in the formula. (Lactose free formulas are just a gimmick to sell more expensive formulas.)
Is it possible for your wife to breastfeed? Breastfed babies are never constipated, and never allergic to breastmilk. (Though she would have to avoid cows milk in her own diet since baby is allergic.) Even at 9 weeks it’s possible for her to relactate and provide baby with breastmilk.
If that’s not an option, I would look into a hypoallergenic formula like alimentium.