.....baby formula, that is.............
While still in the hospital little one had periods of fussiness, but it was all so new & unknown that we didn’t realize it would become a pattern.
In the hospital we had him on enfamil (I was/am unable to breastfeed). We did notice he had a hard time sucking, but somehow we thought he’d get better at it over time.
I had been planning to make my own formula & had some made & frozen at home that we just needed to thaw out. Shortly after we got home we made the switch & at first all seemed well. Little one really liked the formula. Only as the day went on we noticed him getting more & more hungry & scarfing his food down frantically. Somehow it wasn’t satisfying him—I’m assuming it wasn’t enough calories or not enough ‘something’.
At that point I decided I wanted to put him on an organic formula sold in the healthy grocery stores. Earth’s Best is the brand. It’s very expensive, but we felt it was worth it. This one was a no go from the start. He projectile vomited the whole thing immediately after eating it. We even tried 2 separate feedings just to see if the first one was a fluke. So back to enfamil we went.
The overall gassiness & fussiness continued to increase over time. He still struggled with sucking & choking. We were originally using the playtex drop-in bottles, but none of the nipples seemed to be slow enough for him, so we ended up switching to Dr. Brown bottles & it was somewhat better, though he was still struggling somewhat. I found that I liked these bottles better than the playtex though, so I stuck with them. Little one met all the qualifications of colic. We just assumed this is what we were stuck with until he was 3 months or so. We had tried gripe water (which made him throw up), probiotics (also made him throw up), mylicon drops (didn’t change a thing) & homeopathic colic tablets (helped a little initially, but didn’t last & no longer do anything). Finally, hubby was talking with people at work & found that several of them had had colicky babies & that their babies had also been on enfamil. At this point we decided to switch formula once again.
This time we tried Parent’s Choice Gentle formula. It says it’s for “gassy, fussy babies”, which he certainly is. But I didn’t like the ingredients (#1 is corn syrup solids) & it gave him loose stools, so then we tried the Parent’s Choice Organic formula. At first it seemed all was great. He did still struggle with sucking & not choking on his food, but we were trying to teach him to not do that. About a week after he went on this formula he started having loose green stools. And then a day or two later he started throwing up—a lot, frequently projectile, I’m not talking about a little spit-up. I talked with his doc about it & he was sure it was something viral & it would pass, but he did put him on tagamet, which did nothing. It continued & the throwing up was actually getting worse. So I went back to the doc & this time he treated me like I was crazy & insisted it was viral & would pass. But it did not.
At this point hubby decided we should switch him back to the enfamil. So we did. We started it again on a Friday night. He wasn’t throwing up & his stools were normal again. But by Monday morning he had turned into a totally different baby, his personality was totally different. He was a little monster—the screaming at the top of his lungs was never-ending, he was choking on every sip of the bottle, he was kicking, hitting, even pinching. It was totally unreal the change that had taken place before our eyes. This was the child we had early on when we first came home from the hospital. We had assumed the changes for the better were because he was getting older & getting used to life, etc. But now we could see that the changes had occurred because we got him off the enfamil. I know there will be people reading this who don’t believe what I’m saying, I probably wouldn’t believe it myself except that I’ve seen studies done that show that artificial colors & flavors, etc cause temper tantrums in kids. And kids with autism make HUGE improvements when their diets are changed for the better. So yes, nutrition makes a really big difference in temperaments.
So we went back to the Parent’s Choice organic formula at this point. The first day all was well. He was eating calmly & not throwing up & had normal stools. But on the second day the stools turned loose green & the throwing up started up again. At this point I was ready to pull my hair out. I can’t help but think that if we could just get the feeding issues resolved that I would have a perfect baby. There are no other difficulties with him, but these ones are huge.
Now I stop to consider the fact that hubby has lots of food intolerances & things like that. So I suppose the baby might be predisposed to that sort of thing as well. The doc refuses to look at this possibility, so I must do so on my own. I know that it could be lactose-intolerance, but it could also be a milk allergy & I’m sure it could be other things as well. My mother keeps wanting me to try Isomil. That’s the formula I was raised on. But soy is a last resort for me. I’ve read a lot of studies that show that soy is not good. Not to mention the fact that it’s most likely GMO soy. And there’s corn syrup solids in there too, which is most likely GM corn.
I was hoping to find a goat milk formula, but cannot find a single one. So I headed back to look at all the choices in the Parent’s Choice line & came home with 3--one that has rice starch (to reduce vomiting & spit-up), one that is lactose-free, & a soy formula. I am currently trying the rice starch one, it has the best ingredients of the 3. The lactose free one also has corn syrup solids as the #1 ingredient. And of course the soy will be my last resort.
And then hubby calls me earlier & says that a coworker of his says it’s the iron that’s in the formula, that his baby couldn’t tolerate it & it made for green stools & vomiting. But of course they ALL seem to have added iron............so what are we to do??
I am praying for success with one of these 3, hopefully for the one with rice starch. We shall see..................
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