Question about Alimentum

[Anonymous]

I’ve read a lot of the old threads here about Alimentum but I have a question…

I recently switched my 3-month old daughter to Alimentum full time because she had such TERRIBLE gas when I was breastfeeding her (I eliminated all dairy, caffeine, gassy veggies a while ago but gas did not go away). So she has been on the Alimentum part time since last Friday and full time for 2 days now…and I have not noticed any difference yet (we had 2 good sleep nights and now she is back to waking 4 times a night). Some threads say it takes a week or longer to notice and others say you notice right away. Does anyone know what the final word on this is?? Should I stick with it for longer before trying something else? What would I try? Nutramigen?

Just fyi, the GI doc never confirmed that she is MSPI — never found blood in her stool, etc. She has an endoscopy in a week and a half so that should explain somen things, but in the meantime I don’t want her to be in pain because of the formula i’m using.

Help!

[Anonymous]

You should give it at least 2 full weeks before deciding if the formula
is helping. After that you’d likely need to go to Neocate/Elecare.

The endoscopy will also help with this – if they find EOS cells for example, you’d need Neocate/Elecare.

BTW – we had much better luck with the RTF instead of the powder Alimentum.

[Anonymous]

I had heard that about the powdered so we use the RTF. Ok so I will keep it up until the endoscopy and see what they say…i really hope she doesn’t need to go to one of those other formulas.

If they don’t find EOS cells does that mean that she could tolerate a milk-based formula? Or not necessarily?

My concern is that after those two great sleep nights we had when we first started the formula, her reflux symptoms seem to be reappearing (coughing at night, waking a lot, arching her back)…and it could just be coincidence that the symptoms started again when we started formula full time…i just don’t know.

[Anonymous]

No – the EOS cells would be a sign of a true allergy, but even without
them she could be milk intolerant. It does sound like she may be
reacting to the formula but try the full 2 weeks – and if no
improvement you can try Neocate/Elecare. She is on such a low dose of
medicine and that would have to be changed too – she really needs at
least 7.5 mg twice a day to be of any help. If your doctor continues to
refuse I’d strongly suggest you get a second opinion and see a GI
specialist. Giving a PPI only once a day doesn’t help much since babies
metabolize these drugs much faster than adults do.

[Anonymous]

Argh — I see a very popular GI specialist here and he is the one who does not want to increase her dosage…she also takes zantac. He said 7.5 mg is generous (she weighs only about 10lbs)…but maybe after the endoscopy he’ll be willing if he sees something. I’m so tempted to just increase what i give her myself and then when things improve i can say “see, this is what she needed” but I know that’s not the right thing to do….sigh…

[Anonymous]

He really is not correct about the 7.5 being generous – and it’s the
once a day dosing that’s as much the problem. You’d probably even be
better with 3.75 twice a day… Are you making sure to space the Zantac
out by at least 2 hours from the PPI?

Where do you live? I might considering making an appointment with a GI
doc for the week after the endoscopy if you don’t like what he tells
you – since it can take so long to get an appointment.

[Anonymous]

I live in Leesburg, VA. And yes, I give the prevacid at about 6:00pm and the zantac at about 4am (with mylanta mixed in there occasionally). Yeah, we’ll see what he says….I think he is conservative. He DID say that he does give higher prescriptions but he wants to do the endoscopy first so its not impossible that he’ll increase her dose.

[hellbennt]

there’s really good exlanations about what it means to be intolerant to milk/soy proteins and allergic to them here:Here’s about mspi and related issues: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2697&a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;a mp;PN=1&TPN=1

[Anonymous]

We went through every formula there is, and finally ended up with neocate at 6 months old. The milk proteins in alimentum and nutramigen built up and caused soo many problems. It takes a couple weeks to see a major difference, sometimes the intestines need time to heal after being inflammed for so long. dd was so gassy with mucousy diarrhea, spitting up, irritable, this usually happened around 20-30 mins after eating. Can you give dd a dose of zantac before she goes to bed? Mylanta cherry supreme? Night times are the worst!

[Anonymous]

I have not been giving her any zantac before bed because I give her the prevacid before bed…and I think they’re supposed to be spaced out by at least 2 hours right?? I could give her 1/2 a dose of zantac later in the night…but shouldn’t the prevacid still be working then? I do give mylanta/maalox a couple of times a night and it seems to help with the gas a little.

I’m hoping that in a couple more days — once she adjusts to the formula — we’ll see a change in her behavior and sleep….

[hellbennt]

7.5mgs of prevacid *might* not be enough…

[Anonymous]

Yeah tell me about it — except my doctor won’t increase it (at least not until she has her endoscopy)…..

[Anonymous]

FYI my twins were on Alimentum for a little while. The would eat the RTF but not the powder. Since we were just trying it I had to pay for it before I could get a script for it and the powder was a fortune nevermind the RTF. So, the nurse at the ped office suggested I make it in the blender. Wow!!! IT was perfect, just like the RTF…so if you are paying for your formula yourself, or even if not, but you have the powder, give it a try. It’s also nice to always have a pitcher of formula in the frigde.

[Anonymous]

That’s a great idea. Thanks. I’m still using RTF because my kids always had problems with the powder, but when I’m ready to try powder again I’ll try the blender method.

[Anonymous]

Just be careful because the ingredients in the powder Alimentum are actually different from the RTF.

[Author]

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