Rob and I have been at BMS Children's Hospital now since Thursday after Maddy started vomiting up her formula AND pumped breast milk. She had also lost 2 more ounces since coming home instead of gaining weight. Her pediatrician sent us up here the same day to get tested. We were told to expect A LOT of tests since newborns obviously cannot communicate the symptoms themselves.
After Maddy was born, I had been supplementing her breastfeeding with Similac Advance Formula(blue label) because of the Jaundice and since she had lost weight. Everything was fine for the week she was home until Wednesday when she started vomiting up her food. The pediatric gastroenterologist at the hospital suggested we feed her Similac Alimentum(purple label) which is formula for babies with very sensitive stomachs. She is tolerating it pretty well, minus a few vomit episodes that are no where near as voluminous as what she was doing before, and she has already gained back 6 ounces since being in the hospital.
Milk allergies in babies are fairly common, affecting 2-3% of newborns. Most babies grow out of the allergy and can start back on cow's milk after a year. Common symptoms include: vomit, irritability, colic, refusing food, and skin rashes. However, these are also symptoms of other ailments giving the hospital reason to run a series of tests on infants to rule other problems out.
One of the tests they had to perform was a spinal tap. This is something you wouldn't think would have to be done, but since babies cannot communicate their symptoms, the spinal can provide answers to whether or not the baby is fighting an infection. Thankfully, spinal taps done on infants are generally tolerated very well and the only side effect is generally a headache. We were told that Maddy didn't cry at the needle injection, so that was good. However, it is still upsetting to see your baby go through these tests.
We expect to be here until Tuesday at the very least. We still don't have a final word yet, but I will give a full update when we know.
Until then, keep Maddy in your thoughts and prayers.
What's wrong with baby: Milk Allergies
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Hello – I’m sorry to hear your little girl hasn’t been feeling well and I’m glad she is doing better with Alimentum. However, if she starts to experience the symptoms again, you might want to consider switching to an amino acid based formula, like Neocate. The protein in Alimentum is broken down into pieces smaller than the full protein chains in milk-based formula. But the protein in Neocate is broken down even further into amino acids, the individual building blocks of protein. Essentially, Neocate is the gentlest formula you can give a baby. If you have any questions or would like more information on amino acid based formulas, feel free to contact me at babyhealthblog@ecius.net. Hope all goes well with the rest of the tests –Sarah
Post a Comment