BF to Alimentum or anything else?

[Anonymous]

I’m trying to wean my 10 month old to something other than breast milk but he isn’t interested in formula. I can get him to drink regular formula when I’m not around and others offer it to him, but I think he is having reactions to it (rash, constipation, night waking). I would switch to Nutramagin or Alimentum, but he is SO not interested. He has taken Alimentum before, but not now, and I hear it tastes better than Nutramagen. Is there anything I can mix in it to make it taste better, or should I try something like goat’s milk?

I’m trying to wean him because we have had 10 months of problems and recently learned he is allergic to wheat. The blood test only tested against eggs, wheat, milk and soy, so I don’t know if he is allergic to other things too. In the meantime, I’m on a strict diet and trying to get him to eat solids, but he isn’t very interested in that either.

[hellbennt]

I think that before you wean him from breastmilk you have to get him to drink something like neocate (which probably will be hard?) or, have him eating more…I wish I had some more positive upbeat words to share with you…this sounds very very difficult;

here’s a bigHUGfor you…

I’d also go post over at the yahoobreastfeedingreflux board- those mamas know a lot about diet, etc…

I think that at a year you can have him drinking rice or potato milk (we were just discussing this- https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4735&a mp;PN=0&TPN=1 )

what happens with solids? is he gagging and vomiting? just not interested?

[Anonymous]

Thanks Laura. He used to eat more baby food but now only wants to self feed. I’m not sure if it is an independence thing, or if he is hurting, or maybe teething. But with the wheat allergy, there is only so much I can give him. We’re doing rice waffles, rice bread, soft carrot pieces and sweet potato pieces.

He likes Rice Dream (rice milk) and will drink it in a sippy cup but I worry that it isn’t enough, especially since he is small. I think he’s in the 5th percentile now. He is very active and doesn’t want to nurse, except for when he’s really hungry, or before naps and bed time (and at least once during the night…).

I have a feeling that I’m not going to be able to wean him before a year but wish there was something else that I could at least suppliment with to help him gain weight.

Thanks as always for the info. I’ll check the link you sent and the yahoo forum.

[Anonymous]

The self feed thing at 10 months is just because of him wanting independence.

I agree with Laura, I know it’s going to be hard but I don’t think you can wean him until he’s absolutely getting more calories/fat/protein from other foods and another source of liquid like milk (rice/soy/cow’s). Have you tried flavoring the Alimentum. Before a year, I wouldn’t do chocolate but maybe a little vanilla extract? Have you tried giving it in a new cup – maybe a straw cup?

How about rice pasta and cereals for snacks (Kix and Gorilla Munch are wheat free). Hailey always loved pasta when she first started self feeding.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for writing Stacey. I’ve read some of your posts and was hoping you’d be able to give me some advice.

Thanks for the food ideas. I didn’t think of those cereals. Glad to hear that the self feeding is ok too. I was worried that he wasn’t eating due to pain, but he seems to be getting enough to have at least one BM a day.

So now my question is – do you think weaning him to rice milk is ok, if I had to do that? He likes it and will drink it from his straw cup, just not a lot since he still knows my milk is there for him. I worried that it doesn’t have enough fat, vitamins, etc. I thought about trying goat’s milk but maybe not before he’s 1? I actually don’t mind continuing with nursing and staying on my restricted diet, if it helps him. I’m just worried that he may be allergic to something other than wheat. I guess the only way to find out is by elimination again. He also does the independence thing with nursing at times too.

Also hadn’t thought of the vanilla extract. I will try it! I have Xylitol, a natural sweetener with anti-bacterial properties that I thought about using. I just worry about giving this baby anything new at this point.

[Anonymous]

Krista ~ We have gone through so many feeding “stages” with Hailey. Try to just go with the flow and offer him things he can eat himself. I think by 12 months, Hailey would rarely let me feed her at all (for sure by 15 months). How about wheat/gluten free pancake mix? I’ve been making Hailey little silver dollar size pancakes for a long time. You can do all sorts of things with them and they are a huge hit. You can add ground up veggies to the mix. Pumpkin and mashed banana is good to add too.

I would be nervous about weaning to just rice milk in your case. You said he’s in the 5%, right? Rice milk just doesn’t provide much fat, you would have to be able to replace it with other sources…It’s really not for kids at all that are under a year and certainly not a suitable replacement for breastmilk or formula until well after a year (unless the baby is a great eater). I don’t think it will hurt to supplement with the rice milk at this point. Seems like lots of 10-11 month old babies only nurse 1-2 times per day anyway, right? How much does he nurse?

I know it’s tough. Try to stick it out a few more months and then you’ll have a few more possibilities.

[Anonymous]

Yep – 5%. He has barely grown in a month, but I’m chalking it up to teething (low appetite, I guess) and crawling like a mad man (burning everything off).

He currently nurses (including night time feedings) about 5 to 7 times a day. Maybe with your suggestions, I can get more food down him. The pancake ideas are great. We’ve done buckwheat pancakes, but I never thought about adding anything to them. Great idea! Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

Yikes, I guess I was way off on the nursing – huh? No wonder you want to wean him, seems like 5-7 times is a lot at that age? Maybe not though, I really don’t know much about nursing since I wasn’t able to do it.

[hellbennt]

I’m with stacey: continue nursing and add in the rice milk or potato milk…add flax seed oil to everything you can, also inquire about avocado oil at whole foods (or somewhere similar)…avocado itself is a great fat…as for self feeding there are a bunch of ideas here- you’ll have to read through & think how to make them diet-specific but I bet a lot of the ideas will help you:

finger foods: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1653

Toddler foods-mspi safe& otherwise: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2599&a mp;PN=1

also, blackstrap molasses is full of iron and calcium…let him dip everything in it- toddlers LOVE to dip! sweet potato fries, pancakes, toast, frenchtoast made with egg replacer, waffles, apple slices, banana slices, whatever you can think of…

here’s wheat free info from whole foods, complete w/ a link to a ‘shopping list’; http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/healthinfo/list_wf.html

beans are great for little fingers, too-jonah loves beans! black beans, kidney beans, garbonzo beans (chickpeas)…have you tried hummous? again, more dipping potential, lol!

here’re some recipes: http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/recipes.html

VegWeb – great site for getting egg/dairy free recipes. If you’re not vegan, you can add meat/chicken to some of the recipes .. great site to get baking recipes that don’t use eggs and dairy.
http://vegweb.com/

site for children w/ milk & egg allergies: http://users.aol.com/katherinez/kath2.htm

Milk replacer http://www.vances.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Cate gory=4

Egg replacer http://www.ener-g.com/store/detail.aspx?id=97

[Anonymous]

Laura, as always, you are so wonderful! Thank you for taking the time to send all of that info!!! I will keep the email and use it.

And I’m going with you all. The kid isn’t interested in weaning anyways. He’s independent, but still loves nursing and sometimes I think he’s holding out for it…

Thanks again to both of you. You’ve helped so much!

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to add to Stacey’s great ideas. The rice pasta, Gorilla Munch cereal and gluten free pancakes are a huge hit here. She also likes Barbara’s Puffins cereal and Erewhon GF Brown Rice Crisp cereal (I think that’s what it’s called). Plus there is a gf toasted oats cereal. It’s a lot like Cheerios. If soy is safe then you can also try GenSoy Soy crisps. We use the sea salt flavor. Gerber dried corn is also a favorite. Have you tried rice cakes? She’s not into them right now, but she used to really like them.

[Anonymous]

Thanks! No, I hadn’t tried rice cakes. He’s new to self feeding, so I’m afraid to give him anything too hard, but may try them soon. IHe loes the Erewhon Rice Crisp cereal, hadn’t seen the oat cereal.

What’s interesting is that even though the blood test showed that he was only allergic to wheat, I think he’s having a reaction to milk too. I’ve been trying the Yo Baby organic yogurt yesterday and today and he loves it, but he hasn’t pooped in over a day (which is strange) and has a tone of gas. He’s also sick with a runny nose and lots of congestion. I think that is from teething, but I really hope it’s not from the dairy… My husband and I are both sensitive to dairy, so I don’t know how he couldn’t be.

One more question – has anyone tried goat’s milk? I’ve read that if you’re sensitive to milk that it isn’t much better, but some seem to have had good luck with it.

[Anonymous]

We were told that the blood test often has false negatives. So it is possible that he has an allergy to milk that didn’t show up on the test. It’s also possible that he has an intolerance to milk which wouldn’t show up on a blood test. (Of course, just to keep things confusing, other people have posted that they were told that the blood test tends to have false positives. So, who knows for sure?) Kaelyn loved Yo Baby, but it didn’t love her back.

I assumed that if Kaelyn had any allergies, it would be soy and peanut butter because I’m allergic to both of those foods. However, she has done really well with soy and tested fine for peanut butter with both the blood and skin tests. I wonder if maybe it’s because I had very little of them when I was pregnant because they give me horrible hives and I was worried about what it would do to her.

[hellbennt]

there was a mam here, hagismama something like that who swore by goats milk- I believe there’s a goat’s milk formula recipe from http://www.askdrsears.com

[Anonymous]

I’ve also heard that few do have luck with it. I don’t think they really understand why that would be. I’ve never seen it anywhere – have you?

[Author]

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