4 months suddenly won't drink formula anymore but will drink EBM

[kentmom29]

Hi

Can anyone share any experiences of LO not drinking formula after happily doing so? We started DS2 on bottles at about 3/4 weeks old so DH could do DF and I could get some sleep! When I could, I would express enough for the DF and if not he has a goats milk formula as we have a family history of severe cow protein allergy. The last 3 nights he has absolutely refused the formula, but will happily drink a bottle of EBM, so the bottles themselves can't be the issue.

Because of his allergy I can't try any other formulas. I have read online to mix made up formula with some BM until he accepts it again. Has that worked? Has anybody known their LOs to happily drink a formula and then out to the blue refusing to?

Thanks for any help... x

[Lolly]

Does he actually have milk protein intolerance/ allergy or is there just the family history? Are you dairy free yourself? The proteins in goats milk are very similar to cow's milk so if he doesn't have a problem with it he may not have a problem with cow's milk formula. If there is milk protein allergy/ intolerance it's usually recommended to go the hypoallergenic route rather than goat's milk formula.

You can mix breast milk into made up formula and gradually increase the ratio of formula however if he is breastfed at all other feeds it probably won't help as there is a big taste difference between the 2. The swapping oz method is usually done when swapping completely from breastmilk to formula or formula to cow's milk to get them used to the taste. It's worth  a try I guess but may not work in your situation.

Laura

[kentmom29]

Hi, I can't say he definitely has it, but when I was a baby my mum gave me one bottle of cows milk formula and the reaction was that I was covered head to foot in eczema so bad it bled, and when my grandma saw she said that same thing happened to my dad. My mum didn't ever give my younger sister formula and so she avoided most eczema issues but not all. When I had my ds1, I was eating dairy and all the health professionals told me it wouldn't be affecting my son who had severe reflux symptoms. He was put on gaviscon and then ranitidine, but after seeing the side effects of those on him, I went to a nutritionist who confirmed the allergy and we switched to the goat milk formula and me being completely cow milk product free, and all his reflux went away! We have allowed him small amounts of cow milk products now he's 2 and a half but already he's started to have nasty patches of eczema appearing.

There is no way with that history I would ever even try a small amount of dairy with DS2. I've been dairy free since I got pregnant and although he spits up a lot, he's what I call a happy puker! None of the pain his brother went through.

We actually tried the formula again last night when he woke really hungry for a dream feed at 9.30pm and he took nearly 150ml, which is a lot for him! It's so random. I did read someone saying their GP had suggested adding vanilla extract to the formula to sweeten it, to be more list BM but the goat formula tastes quite sweet already to me. Has anyone tried the vanilla? Just in case he changes his mind about it again!