Finding Formula – Part Three
Formula 7: Our new pediatrician suggested we try Similac Alimentum. We had read about it and done some research but we weren’t sure if it would be right for us. Alimentum is a fully-hydrolyzed formula, meaning all of the milk protein has been broken down to be easily digested by baby’s digestive system. It is typically prescribed for babies with a milk protein allergy (which we do not have a diagnosis of) but can also be used for babies that have a milk intolerance, which we now believe Dawson has. Alimentum initially didn’t work well for us. We quickly learned that many babies don’t do well with Alimentum because of the corn, which is the primary ingredient in the formula. So, here is the Caveat, while Alimentum did not work for us Alimentum Ready to Feed did, which brings me to formula number 8.
Formula 8: Alimentum Ready to Feed is in actuality not the same as the powdered version of the formula. This made absolutely no sense to us but definitely worked to Dawson’s advantage. The Ready to Feed version does not have corn as an ingredient but is still fully-hydrolyzed; And it was a life saver, at least for a while. Dawson still struggled some but not nearly as much. It was like he was a different baby. He was much happier, less fussy, pooped a bit more easily and screamed less in the process. Unfortunately, one day this just started to change and his previous symptoms came back. There were literally days where he would scream for 6-7 hours at a time in an effort to poop or pass gas, it was the worse that it had been so far.
During our time on Alimentum we also began to see a Pediatric Gastroenterologist, Dawson was diagnosed with Reflux, which was likely causing some discomfort as well. We also began to see a Speech Language Pathologist for feeding therapy. Both of these interventions combined have been extremely helpful for us!
Formula 9: That brings us to Dawson’s latest formula, we are currently trying Elecare. Elecare is essentially broken down to the “true elements”. It is an amino-acid based formula as opposed to being milk-based and does not contain any diary or milk. As you can probably imagine, this formula also comes with a pretty hefty price tag, fortunately we have not had to buy any on our own so far thanks to samples from our GI’s office. We can definitely see a difference in Dawson so far. He still sometimes screams before pooping, but for minutes, not hours. I will say that we are starting to have some concern that he may becoming constipated. Currently he has not had a bowel movement for three days but there is still significantly less screaming. We are seeing his GI tomorrow afternoon and hope to have some answers as to what could be going on and hopefully a few more trials as well before we make the plunge.
