What's in formula to cause allergy?

[sophieellen]

Hi,

My dd is five and a half months.  I have been trying to introduce formula as she has been waking up at night more frequently, so I thought I would try this before starting on solids. Also, I wanted to stop bf at 6 months as I don't want to carry on until dd is a year old.

We tried Aptamil but she came up in a rash over her face, neck, legs before she even finished the bottle. She seemed to have stomach pains and was making a panting/cough like noise.

We were then recommended Cow & Gate Omneo formula which she seemed ok with. Then I was told that she shouldn't be using this as it's for babies with colic and is too thick for babies without colic.

I then tried SMA Gold today and she has come out in a reaction again. This time, as well as the rash, she was violently sick.

I went to see the GP to see what it is that dd is allergic to but he said that it's trial and error and I have to go through the different formulas until one agrees with her. The thought of putting her through this everytime is horrible and I'm worried that she'll start rejecting the bottle (as well as making her feel poorly).

Also, when bf I am unable to eat cheese as she has colic-like symtoms.

Has anyone else had this problem? What did you do?  What could she be allergic to if she's ok with the Omneo??

I feel like I'm getting nowhere with Health Visitors and my GP so your opinions would be really helpful and it would be interesting to see if others have been in this situation.

Thanks

[Ennypen]

Grrrrr to the person who put you off using Omneo....

I have used Omneo Comfort to feed my son since he was about 3 months old and am a devoted fan of it. Have a look at this thread to see my thoughts on it...

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=55537.0

So I dont repeat myself all I'll say here is that its not too thick for babies without colic - its fine. Its lower in lactose than ordinary formulas and has a slightly different composition to most formulas to make it easily digested. As some of the sugars are already broken down in the formula so baby doesnt have to do it themselves it can be slightly harder on teeth than most but if  you are good about brushing teeth when your LO gets them it should not be a problem.

If your LO was fine on Omneo go back to it.. its just fine.. if it wasn't I wouldn't be using it to feed the most precious thing in my life.

It sounds to me as if your LO is sensitive to the lactose part of the formulas but Im not medically trained or able to diagnose that but since shes ok with Omneo and not with others its a strong possibility. This could be consistent to the prob with cheese - I cant eat it nor can Will - gives us both terrible stomach ache!

As far as other things that babies can be allergic to in formulas there could be all sorts but it seems to me that lactose and mik proteins seem to be the most common so some mommies try a soya based formula - there should be posts about these formulas wither in the colic board or the bottle feeding board - take a look xxx

Hope I can help just a bit xxx

H xx

[tinytatsmom]

I agree with Ennypen.  My dd had big problems if I ate too much milk products and started to refuse the breast.  Actually she bobbed on and off, she wanted it but she didn't b/c it gave her a tummyache.  After getting very sore nipples from her pulling I tried formula one night for relief for me.  Well she took the bottle ok and in the am she had puked everywhere, all over herself, her crib even onto the floor and she was not even 3 months yet.  She would often spit up after feeds and grunt in pain, pulling her legs up from the time she was 2 weeks old.  Well at 3 months after a 10 day run of the poops we tried lactose free formula and I have never looked back, totally different baby.  I no longer wake up to her grunting at 5am in pain.  So use the formula that works who cares if it is only suppose to be for colicy babies it surely can't hurt.  I would be more worried about the discomfort she would go thru trying all the other formulas.
Good luck to you and hope you get it all figured out, it is no fun having a baby in discomfort.
tinytatsmom

[Wiki]

My friend uses Omneo with her little girl who doesn't have colic (she has reflux but that's different obviously).
If it works OK, I would say try it again, maybe just give her a few oz to see. Poor little thing, and how awful of your doc to say its just trial and error, sounds like my HV saying I should give C solids to make him sleep at night, not!

[KB]

Hi there

I don't know what Omneo is but I had a similar experience.  We introduced a little bit of formula at six months and it seemed to be fine.  Then when she had yoghurt she had a huge reaction, rash vomiting etc.  Also vomited if I ate too much cheese.

I found out the formula that I had given her was partially hydrolysed meaning that it had been processed to make it more digestible.  After a consult with an immunoligist it was shown that she is allergic to cows milk. (different to lactose intolerant).  If your lo is reacting when you eat cheese this may be a milk allergy.  What you describe (the rash etc) and how fast it happened sounds more like a cows milk allergy.  Whilst not all lactose intolerant people can eat cheese, lots can and also you are more likely to see the cramping, vomity type symptoms, not rash and noisy breathing.

So I guess what I'm saying is don't rule out milk allergy even if Omneo is cow's milk based, as my lo could handle hydrolysed cows milk based formula but not anything else with cow's milk in it.  Some milk got on her skin accidentally a couple of weeks ago and she broke out in hives everywhere from one drop!

The immunoligist told us even though she handled the hydrolysed formula it was best not to give it to her as any exposure to the allergen can make it worse.  He tested her for soy and she was negative so we switched to soy formula and it has been great.

I would check with your doctor before trying anything else and no it shouldn't be trial and error! My doctor arranged allergy testing with the immunologist immediately and told me not to give her anything new until I'd seen him.  Seeing the immunoligst was the best thing we did as we now have a really good idea what she is allergic to - including things we hadn't given her yet so we also didn't have to go through any more scary reactions to find out!  I cut all dairy out of my diet and even her eczema went away.

Also about the night waking - I was intoducing formula for the same reason and it didn't work, wasn't about hunger.  My lo started waking at just on 6 months.  We actually worked against ourselves as the upset from all the food experimentation was worse than just getting up to breastfeed her.

Hope things are going better, I was really strung out when we were going through this.  The good news is most babies grow out of milk allergy.