Soy Formula - Tampa,FL

Hi E.,

I had to put my son on a special formula for his spit-up. I would not recommed soy and neither does my pedi. My son was on Enfamil AR for babies who spit-up. I had to go back to the regular Enfamil because of the consipation. His system just couldnot handle it. I would switch back. As long as she is gaining weight she should be fine spitting-up. Hope this helps a little.

Soy is actually a higher allergenic food than milk, and yes, it can cause constipation. It should only be used as a last resort when no other formula can be tolerated. I would trust your pedi and switch back to regular formula. Unless your baby is in a great deal of discomfort from it, or vomiting an entire feeding, spitting-up is not really something that you need to "treat." Hang in there and she will grow out of it.

Here is the dilemma...if you were having major spit up problems, she may have sensitivity or delayed allergy to casein (milk). I found out about this too late, and it caused some major problems with my son.

Since you see improvements on soy, this may be the case. Now as for the bowl issues...This also leads me to believe she may be having issues with casein...for that is exactly what can happen when your body is trying to get rid of the product that the body does not like.

To avoid the whole issue, you may want to contact a breast milk bank and go that route.

My advise is to get her tested for both HGg and HGe allergies...or tell your ped you want testing done for sensitivities...This saved my child's life...

As for soy in general, yes, it is a hormone based bean, and can cause issues in the future--but is shown to mostly effect boys more than gyrls....I have not found any empirical studies done on soy on infant gyrls....but I do know it had been linked to early puberty and early menstrual cycles.

I have to say that my opinion on the lesser of two evils is using soy if you are noticing an improvement with spitting up (and behaviors)...because an unknown sensitivity or delayed allergy can have worse consequences than the soy bean.

I hope this helped some, and remember--only YOU can make the best decision for your child..YOU are the parent and yes, you have the ultimate say!

My daughter has a slight allergy to soy. She could never handle any type of soy formula. She is ok now but when she was a baby it was a definitely not something for her

My son had a heck of a time with spitting up when he was a baby. We tried soy for some time and it was awful for him, it constipatied him so bad! We tried watering it down but the bottom line is soy wasn't the best choice.
Go back to regular formula (I used Nestle's Good Start was the gentlest on his tummy) and just switch don't ween or anything. She needs to be off the soy asap. Sure you may have extra spitting up for a day while her system adjusts but soy isn't helping. I went through 8 formulas and ended up with Good Start.
Just know that when your baby spits up it looks like WAY more then it is. I thought for sure my boy was spitting up everything he was taking in but his doctor (Dr. Jim Sears) said if you catch the spit up into an empty bottle you will see it isn't nearly as much as it looks like on clothes or a cloth. Its true. My boy grew out of the spitting up and is compeletely healthy now. He just had a sensitive stomach. He does have a milk allergy but it is minor and is just with milk and not all dairy. His spitting up went on until he was about 7 months but he was gaining weight and growing the way he was supposed to and that was the most important thing.
Don't worry too much, this will pass. :)

All I know is that soy and soy formula metabolize into estrogen in the body- which is VERY bad for both girls and boys.
I would switch back, especially since it sounds like this new formula is giving her so much discomfort and pain.

If you can stay off soy formula, you might consider it. I agree with the other poster on the hormone levels it mimcs. See http://www.wholesoystory.com. Soy is actually very hard for adults to digest, as well.

My youngest son had a lot of issues with different formulas. It started out that every feeding he would have three bowel movements - but he was gaining weight - but it was causing severe diaper rash. So we switched him to Soy milk. I don't trust soy milk because as the first post said that it does have a lot of hormones in it as birth control. It's not my first choice. So, I decided to take him to the Allergist and the allergist told me that the very first problem was that I kept switching his formula. He also has reflux so she gave me a script for Zantac - your baby may need that if the spit up is projectile. So we went to Similac advance - by the second day - he had no spit up he had normal bowels and his diaper rash was almost gone. One thing that I have learned - that with reflux - the ligther the formula the more reflux / spitting up they will have - because it's so broken down and so watered down as well already that it doesn't digest well. I wouldn't put her back on gentlease - I would go with the Similac, or Enfamil (regular) or even Good Start - also, try the formula that is premade - that might work better for her. Whatever you do, pick one formula and stay with it for at least 4 days to be sure that she is not having a bad reaction.

As for the constipation issue - depending on how old she is - you can boil chamomile tea and giver her just 2 ounces with no sugar - I had to do that with my son when he had colic and it took it away. You can also take cooking oil rub your hands really fast with the cooking oil on it - let it get warm enough and place your hands with the oil on her belly it will help relax the intestines and release some of the gas in there.

Just take things step by step - listen to your motherly instincts - if I kept on listening to the pedi that was seeing my son at the time - I would've spent $800.00 on formula a week for something he didn't have. And to reassure myself - I found another pediatrician.

Good luck.

I would think by switching, it may make her belly hurt some, but I'd do it sooner rather than later. soy formula has the same female hormone as 5 birth control pills. Doctors wont tell you that, and formula companies wont either. Google it.