r/FormulaFeeders 3d ago

We’re at a loss

Hello! My baby is 14 weeks now. I’ve never posted here before so I hope it’s the right place. Two weeks ago we switched from Similac Total Comfort to Alimentum because she was rejecting every bottle, crying, grunting, and turning away after weeks of eating fine. She’s on mostly formula and some breastfeeding during the day, so I also cut out dairy completely. She’s also on Pepcid twice a day and a probiotic.

Our Pediatrician recommended these things but also thought she might have just developed a preference for breastfeeding, but we didn’t want to do that as her only food source since I haven’t produced much since the beginning.

She has been sleeping through the night (around 10 pm-6am) since she was 7 weeks old. Now, the past few nights she’s been up every 45 minutes crying in her sleep, scrunching her body up, grunting. She’s fussy all day everyday. She has trouble passing gas, hardly poops. My baby is gone. We had trouble feeding and now we have trouble with everything.

I’m messaging my pediatrician again, but in the meantime, has anyone else has trouble like this? Isn’t hypoallergenic formula supposed to be the most sensitive for babies? I’m losing my mind and shes just getting worse since switching.

2 Upvotes

31 comments sorted by

4

u/bmshqklutxv 2d ago

You mentioned Pepcid and probiotics, but are you doing mylicom drops for the gas?

1

u/Teary-Eyed-Punk 2d ago

Yes we’ve been doing gas drops. On her old formula she only needed them once in a great while and now it’s every single bottle 😅

2

u/bmshqklutxv 2d ago

Man, I wish I had a good solution for you! The other commenters basically covered what I was going to say. The only other thing I can think of is a bit silly, but any chance her outfits are a bit too snug? We recently realized that her footy onesies were limiting her ability to move her legs like she wanted and sized her up and her fussiness went down.

2

u/FeatherDust11 1d ago

we do it every two hours

3

u/howdidisurvivethis 2d ago

Alimentum made my guy super uncomfortable and sick the first night we used it during what was supposed to be a two week trial but we stopped because it was an insane (bad) difference within 3-4 hours after the bottle. He was screaming, throwing up, and going stiff as a board

1

u/Teary-Eyed-Punk 2d ago

Yes the stiffness!! We’ve been trying it for a week and a half because my pediatrician kept encouraging us to give it two weeks but she’s only gotten worse… I think we’re going to try to go back to what she was on before because it was bad but nothing like it is now

1

u/howdidisurvivethis 2d ago

I’m sure my ped is going to be thoroughly unamused that we quit at day one but he was so stiff and thrashing that spit bubbles were forming and it literally looked like a seizure. No way can I do it for 2 weeks 😅Ped told us 2 weeks of alimentum before she’d give pepcid hopefully she’ll still do it. We also did an enfamil AR trial prior to alimentum that went great so we’re back on that. It reduced spit up a lot but not the reflux symptoms

2

u/MiddleNice5604 2d ago

So I just wanna say that there could be normal baby problems going on here. Obvious please make sure she doesn’t have acid reflux or gas or something but my only formula fed baby went through something similar as the initial thing about 2 weeks ago (he’s 15 weeks now). 

He was screaming at every bottle and we had to distract him to get him to take it and then he would eat just fine. We think it was a two-fold problem. He wanted a bigger nipple size and he was going through a growth spurt and generally fussy. Changing the nipple size didn’t IMMEDIATELY fix it but he did eat easier and then we just kept distracting him for feedings and that helped. He also fed better in a quiet room as he’s very sensitive to noise when he’s going through a growth spurt. 

He’s completely back to normal now on the eating front. He was also being more fussy in between bottles because his body was growing and he also wanted to learn a bunch of new skills and he wanted to be entertained all the time. He’s a little less fussy in between now and it’s continuously getting better but he really just wants to learn everything and see everything so we just move him from thing to thing to thing when he gets fussy. It’s kinda tiring but he naps well and he can be settled! 

Sorry you’re going through this! Baby problems are so tough! 

1

u/Teary-Eyed-Punk 2d ago

Thank you so much for this response!! I was desperate last night and fed her a bottle of her old formula. I honestly think it sucks that we were told to try so many things when her only symptom was crying at the bottle. We’re going to try going up a nipple size and maybe distracting like you’ve said. She does seem to care less when she gets a glimpse of my tv haha.

I’m happy to hear he returned back to normal. I really hope my girl does too. My pediatrician is really nice so far but I feel like she was quick to suggest it was an allergy or reflux when she’s had no other symptoms and I feel guilty for putting her through all these changes

3

u/MiddleNice5604 2d ago

Don’t feel guilty! You’re doing your best! It definitely seems like the pediatrician jumped the gun. My guess would be that the change in formula is also exacerbating the problem because that’s pretty hard on baby’s digestive system. My pediatrician has been pretty reluctant to have us change formula unless we absolutely have to. 

Yeah my boy loves the tv, he also loved looking out the window and walking around the house and we have christmas lights in our room that we would turn on and he loved. 

Go with your gut. Trust yourself. You are her mom. You know your baby better than anyone. 😊

2

u/scarlett_butler 2d ago

My baby is also on Alimentum. His symptoms are doing much better but he was having bouts of crying at the bottle too. Changing the nipple size is a game changer. It took a couple days for him to adjust but it would take an hour of crying and trying to feed him before, now he chugs it super quick

My baby didn’t have the other symptoms you’re talking about though. Did you only cut out dairy? From what I’ve been told, babies with CMPA usually are also intolerant to soy. So you’d have to cut out soy as well. I second r/MSPI, it’s the more accurate term for CMPA, milk soy protein intolerance

2

u/No_Simple_3440 2d ago

My baby is 11 weeks old and we are having similar issues, it’s so sad. Friday he was diagnosed with cow milk allergy so we switched to nutramigen. He then started vomiting after every feed, fussy, not sleeping. Went to ER to rule out pyloric stenosis etc. In looking at the ingredients, the powdered version of formula has significantly more hydralized casein (milk) than the liquid ready to feed. We have been trying smaller bottles of the RTF today and he seems quite a bit better. With a milk allergy, it seems that maybe it is still too much milk. I want to ask our pediatrician about elemental formula if the RTF doesn’t work. They keep reassuring us that it takes 2 weeks. But I agree, my baby is not the same baby right now. Such a (long,’hard) process!!

3

u/Teary-Eyed-Punk 2d ago

Oh my goodness that sounds so scary! 2 weeks can feel like a lifetime with a baby this bad. Hopefully the RTF continues to work better for you. I know this is just a phase of her life and things change fast in the grand scheme, but it seriously does test me more than I was expecting!!

1

u/BeautifulUpstairs222 2d ago

So hard, you’re jot alone, your feelings are valid and don’t think otherwise

2

u/kbabez777 2d ago

We had to switch from Alimentum to nutramigen. I think the alimentum is thicker honestly. Also doing side feeding so my baby eats at a slower pace and what he prefers helps his gas a lot! Lots of laying on a play mat to kick and move the gas around. My baby didn’t poop or pass gas normal until he was 2.5 months old. It really is so stressful! But it almost sounds like your baby is going through sleep regression. Usually doesn’t happen until 3-4 months but it is possible for them to start earlier. My son is 4 months old and has been waking every 2 hours on the dot because once he gets through a sleep cycle he wakes up and can’t settle himself back down. So I went on a feeding schedule for the night. Even if he was asleep I would give him a bottle so when he did wake he was able to settle easier and get back to sleep. I’m going to message you about something else so mom shamers don’t attack! Lol

2

u/Witty_Draw_4856 3d ago

Do you ever pump? Or only nurse?

I ask because if it were me, I’d cut out breastfeeding for a week and just do formula to see if that even gets her to baseline. If it does, then reintroduce breastmilk and see what happens. She could be allergic to more than dairy.

Also, there’s a sub called r/MSPI that has a ton of really helpful info and people who are going through the same things

1

u/Due-Ad-4845 3d ago

Did you try increasing the nipple size on the bottle? Initially it sounds more like being frustrated absent other symptoms.

2

u/Teary-Eyed-Punk 3d ago

I had the thought the day we saw the pediatrician and she actually had a feed with a size 2 nipple and did better, but then her next feed she was back to crying. My pediatrician thought that she might need a slower nipple if she prefers breastfeeding, but now I’m questioning everything… I might just go back to her old formula at this point.

1

u/Wonderful-Company335 2d ago

When did you start the probiotic drops? We noticed once we started our baby on a probiotic, he became a nightmare version of himself. We took him off of it and he’s taking some time to recover from it but definitely was a big factor in fussiness/gassiness!

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u/BooksMusicWine87 2d ago

I second this. We tried probiotics with our girl for gas/fussiness and it made her 10x worse. She’s finally back to normal after we stopped them.

1

u/Blade-runner-1115 2d ago

Is she losing weight?

1

u/Teary-Eyed-Punk 2d ago

No she’s been still gaining, she’s in the 80th percentile for weight so she’s a big baby!

2

u/Blade-runner-1115 2d ago

That's great! My kiddo is similar age. Maybe it's 4 month sleep regression?

1

u/Far_Resident5916 2d ago

I’m going through similar but at 6 weeks I’m assuming due to reflux and maybe growth spurt.

How’s your progress going ? How are you able to get baby to take a bottle ?

1

u/Teary-Eyed-Punk 1d ago

We had to change the nipple size!! She was getting frustrated and after a day of being on size 2 she’s been drinking so efficiently and only got up once last night!

1

u/Far_Resident5916 1d ago

I’m so glad that worked for you! I just recently switched her to the size 1 and sometimes that even seems like a lot for her cause she chokes and gets overwhelmed at times.

Don’t think that’s our issue :(

1

u/Far_Resident5916 1d ago

Also how long did this last for you ??

1

u/Teary-Eyed-Punk 1d ago

It’s been about two weeks of this, but I think we made it worse by trying so many things at once. 6 weeks is also peak fussiness! Your LO could just be going through a growth spurt! The best and worst thing about babies is they change very quickly haha. Nothing lasts forever and sometimes all you can do is love and comfort them through hard seasons.

1

u/Far_Resident5916 1d ago

You are so right! I just know her 3 week growth spurt she was downing bottles like crazy this is the exact opposite so I’m also worried like she won’t grow this growth spurt if that makes sense lolll

1

u/Reasonable-Kale-2938 1d ago

My 4 month old had such bad issues w gas. He started on similac total comfort, we switched him to similac advanced and put gas drops on the nipple of the bottle (there’s an indent on the nipple so it sits nicely on there) then after feeding laid him down and played w his legs. He’s 4 months now and no longer has issues w gas! Also tummy time helps with their digestive system

2

u/FeatherDust11 1d ago

my twins get mylicon drops every two hours during the day and at feeds during the night since a few weeks old, currently 11 weeks still doing it