Changing Formulas

My daughter had the same problem and is still on prevacid now over a year later. We tried nutramigen and also pregestimil but neither one helped. The pediatrician recommended I put her on the enfamil prosobee which is the soy-based formula. It's the only thing that worked for her. She still has to take the prevacid but her acid reflux is much better since switching to enfamil prosobee.

My daughter went through something similar. The first three months were filled with screaming and crying, she would throw up every drop of formula we put in her, it was awful! Since she was preemie, they thought she had pyloric stenosis (sp?) turns out, she was allergic to the formula. After going through several formula changes, we ended up with Nutramigen. After about a week, I started noticing an improvement, and after two weeks, she slept through the night! Nutramigen was our saving grace. If you have a prescription and qualify for WIC, WIC will provide vouchers for Nutramigen.

Hello Ann,
I had a similar situation with my son who is now 9 months old. I tried every formula out their until i tried "SOY" based formula. I, my self, drank soy based formula when i was a baby, so it was perfect for my son, he was so fussy and he had a lot of gas before i switched to that, and his pediatrician told me to keep searching for the right formula until i find the right one, so may be try that and hopefully it will work.

Good Luck

My son who is now 18 mos was diagnosed with gerd at 3 mos. He also is on Prevacid. We used Enfamil A.R. the added rice formula with him and it seemed to work well. It does not smell bad. We still battled spit ups until after a year old and he did not really get over it until 18 mos. but we saw a huge improvement on the AR. He liked the taste. It is thick so you have to use the fast flow nipples and I usually made a days worth at a time because it was hard to mix in bottle because so thick. Good luck.

Ann, I responded to your other request and just now noticed this one also. I just wanted to also let you know that I used different bottles with each of my girls. My oldest who took Nutramigen only would take Avent bottles (I had to cut the nipples to allow the formula to go through, for I had to mix rice cereal with the nutramigen. This would make it very thick but she was able to keep it down). Now my younger daughter who took to the Nestle Good Start, she hated the Avent bottles (of course, more for me to spend!) she took to the Playtex vent air, alot of pieces to that bottle, but it worked so it was worth it. Hope this helps.
K.

Hi There,

I had experienced this situation twice. Firts my first son, who was really sensitive to the formulas was put on nutramigen and the change on his colics and fussines after starting him on it was inmediate, amazing, and it is because is predigested formula so their little tommies don't have to stress so much and is easier to digest.Yes it is expensive AND stinks, but you could give him the nutramigen for a couple of month as his digestve system matures and then you can transition to something else.
Now hear me out here, my second experience was with my twins, they had GERD and they were put on Zantac and their GI told us that zantac was actually faster than prevacid which takes about 3 days to get in their system to start working, which I proved to be true, THEN I asked him about the formulas, I said, based in our experience with our first son and how great (but expensive) Nutramigen is, Do we have to just take it and buy that for them? I mentioned to him Good Start from Nestle, which is ALSO predigested proteins. AND he said,- actually is what I would recomend for the same reasons, is predigested and works perfect- I asked finally why this formula is never recomended by the Peds if works so well, the reason he said, is only because Enfamil and Similac Companies have contracts with the hospitals and doctores offices, so they recmomend their brand. I really appreciated his honesty, I wish morte people understood this.So we used Good Start with the twins and believe, me worked wonderful and is a lot less expensive.I also asked for soy milk because I was ready to try anything. He did say that the reason he wouldn't totaly recomended is that you don't know of possible allergies that early, so my twins were preemies and I didn't want take a chance. Thats not to say that it does work for some people. I am giving you my insite. This Gi is from Scottish Rite, Children Healhcare. One of my twins was born with cleft lip and palate so this condition to him was a lot more severe than to his brother and even his older brother( the one on Nutramigen), and that worked worderful with him, the Good Start formula and the zantac.

I hope this helps!!
A.
If I can be of anymore help please feel free to contact me.

Hello Ann. My name is M.. I am very familiar with your questions and concerns. My son was born with GERD. He had to have surgery at three weeks old for Pyloric Stenosis. A blockage at the small and large intestines. I went thru 2 different formulas before he ended up on Nutramigen which worked fine for him. We had to have him on the B.R.A.T diet, he was on Reglan, Zantac and Prevacid. It took him until he was 18 months old, to get over Reflux. I don't mean to be discouraging, but this is what I had to deal with. He couldn't lie flat or he would scream to the top of his lungs. He had to be burped very very good, or it would just sit on his stomach and would just put him thru so much pain. We went nights and days crying together. But it can be dealt with as long as you know that you are covering your bases. Also, the formula had to be very hot when he ate. Not to where it was scolding just enough below scolding or other wise luke warm would not help him burp easily.
As far as staying on Enfamil I would just have to say do not put yourself thru long days and nights of misery. Do you get W.I.C? Nutramigen can be put on WIC, you just have to have a note from your DR. because it is such a special formula. If you haven't had them recommend Reglan yet ask about how old he would have to be to get on it. You give it to them before feeding and it helped the formula pass thru so much easier. I loved it.
Let me know how things are going.
Take Care, M. A.

I had these same issues with my last baby. The answer ended up being a combination of the prescription meds and switching to Nutramigen. I know it is expensive and nasty but it was the only thing she could keep down and I became real concerned when she started losing weight instead of gaining.

On another note, if you get the doctor to write a prescription for the Nutramigen, I think WIC covered it up to $300 a month. That REALLY helps!

Hi Ann,

I'm going to give you some information that is a little out of the mainstream. I discovered with my own little one with this problem that Doctors don't always attack the right issue. The formula could be the problem (Side note: Soy based formulas have too much estrogen for babies, especially boys), however if you know anything about the stomach, it is the acid that digests the food. If there is no acid (which the prevacid removes), then the food will rot in the stomach and cause a tummy upset and gas and reflux. It has nowhere to digest except in the next area of the intestines. The intestines are not made to digest food. I am not a doctor but I have stopped using antacids. I gave my daughter 4 oz of prune juice a day to help move things along and a drop or two of apple cider vinegar to help digest foods can help. Acidophilus is also something that can be used (active culture yogurt).The fact that the baby is on prevacid may be why you are having trouble finding the right formula. I repeat, I am not a doctor but investigate this yourself and see if this will help....PS My daughter screamed everyday from tummy upsets until I figured this out. I myself grew up with ulcerative colitis that was treated the "doctor" way. I have not had a flare up in 6 years since I stopped using antacids!

My 10 month old had this problem when he was born and he had to to be on the prevacid and zantac. Ask ur doctor about combining the one ur on with another. He was so much better after that medicine and after a few months it stopped all together.

Ann, my son had the same problem and I actually put him on Nestle Good Start(much cheaper) and the soy formula. They never said he was lactose intolerate but I tried it anyway, and WOW what a difference. Maybe it's worth a shot. You shouldn't have to settle with a certain formula. Ash

I have two little girls that had similar problems. My suggestions would be Nestle Good Start Supreme with DHA/ARA. We went the Ailementum route with our first and Nestle Good Start worked miracles with our second-at a fraction of the cost! Also Dr. Browne's bottles are a miracle if you aren't already using them. I have offered this advice to several friends with the same problems and it has worked every time! Good luck to you!

My daughter has GERD and when she was about your son's age they determined that she had alergic colitis. It was in fact the formula that was upsetting her stomach. She ended up on an amino acid formula until she was a year old. She is now a very healthy child. We're coming up on her 4th birthday and she hasen't even had to take her heartburn medicine in almost a year. Good luck!

Our twins had bad reflux for their first few months.
What worked for us was the enfamil lipil, having them sleep upright in their chairs or swing or amby bed, and keeping them upright for 10 to 15 min after feedings.
I would stick with the lipil for a little while longer if you think that reflux is the culprit. It really helps with keeping the formula down in the tummy. Our girls had horrible projectile spit ups after every single feeding while on breast milk (fun!) but once we switched to the lipil it became much better. (the spitting up .. the discomfort was still there though)
Also, the medications do NOTHING for the pain and discomfort of reflux.. there is even talk now that they really don't work for anything in babies at such low doses .. jury is still out on that though (one of ours was on prevacid and the other on zantac)
Our pediatrician had us start giving the girls Mylanta supreme after each feeding .. it helped tremendously!!!!!! They were different babies after getting the Mylanta .. much happier and obviously feeling much better physically.
Good luck, it's so hard to see your little one going through this .. I know!!! Be patient .. it will correct itself as he grows. By 4 months our girls were off the meds and had no trouble at all!