Hi,

My son was recently diagnosed with a milk allergy by his ped and was put on soy formula. He didn't do any tests or anything to prove this so I'm not sure if he really has a milk allergy or not. My son is very gassy and has had blood in his stools so I guess that is why they suspect an allergy. Anyway, the soy switch is not going well at all. He is so miserable and his reflux has gotten so much worse on the soy because it is so thin. My ped is completly against thickening so we haven't tried that. I know there are four basic types of formula so I'm trying to decide what to try next. I bought some lacto free formula but I'm not sure if I should try the hypo formulas instead. I doubt he'll take the hypo formulas because of the taste though. Has anyone else gone through this and if so did you decide to stick with the milk based formulas or what? My son is gaining weight w/o problems and loves to eat so I suspect his digestive system just has some growing to do. He's 3 months old.

When switching formulas, nothing will change over night..It can take up to a month to tell a difference, and as far as allergies go, 3 months is too young to get an accurate test for that. The only way to tell if there is an allergy is by process of Elimination...

Good Luck:)

Blood in the stool is often a definite sign of milk protein intolerance. Often chidlren who are milk protein intolerant are also soy protein intolerant - it is called Milk Soy Protein Intolerance or MSPI. If you are not seeing any improvement with the soy formula, you may want to ask your doctor about trying a hypo-allergenic formula ( you are right they do not taste good but infants often begin to accept the taste especially if it is making them feel better) which has the milk proteins broken down very small. Some MSPI children do not even tolerate the hypo-allergenics and require amino-acid based prescription formulas such as Neocate.

My grandson went from milk based, to soy which was worse, to hypo which he tolerates very well with his meds (zatac &mylanta) as long as they are adjusted to his weight properly. Like right now he has started puking alot again so it's time for a call to the Dr for an adjusment in dose.

My son is also on a hypoallergenic. Why does your ped not want you to thicken?

blood is a defiinate sign of allergy. The lactose free will not help, as it is still milk based. The allergy is to the protein and lactose is the sugar in milk. My oldest DD was allergic to milk, but did fine with soy. My youngest is allergic to both. She still had blood on alimentum. The blood didn't resolve completely until going on neocate. If he is having blood, I would try the hypo. and just bypass the soy. I have read that alimentum tastes better that nutramigen because its carb source is table sugar. It will take at least 2 weeks to see a huge difference, although blood should be getting less and less right away. I hope you find something that will work for him. Good luck!

I agree with the others! I would stop the Soy as many kids with milk intolerance can't handle Soy either. Try a Hypo formula for a couple weeks and If he still has problems you may have to try Neocate. My son has MSPI and couldn't even tolerate the Hypo formulas.

I would also go milk protein intolerance. I have 2 boys Milk protein intolerent and what you need is to try a hypoallergenic formula. Soy has the same large proteins as milk formula, so this will probably give him issues as well. Milk allergy is actually quite rare (especially if no milk allergy in the family) wheras milk protein intolerence isn't as rare.