Alimentum, Gentille Alimentum
Ellie needs to slow her pumping schedule. She’s not ready to stop, but she does need to pump fewer times each day. A demanding full-time job doesn’t mix well with draining close to a pound of milk six times every day. Plus when she pumps that often, I have to do dishes twice a day to ensure that she has clean pumping paraphernalia, so I’m inconvenienced too.
Ellie wants to cut down to four pumps a day. The problem with that routine, besides bearing the backlog of breast milk until her body adjusts, is she won’t produce enough milk to keep the twins fed. We’ll need to supplement with formula feedings, but finding a formula to feed them has been harder than finding a Seahawk fan outside of the 98xxx zip code area.
You may remember the boys developed a dairy allergy.* Ellie originally purged all dairy from her diet to accommodate their sensitivity. She has since resumed eating dairy in moderation with no ill effects since cutting all dairy is incredibly difficult to do, partially because so many products contain dairy ingredients, and partially because peppermint stick ice cream is so tasty.
The standard formulas are all milk-based, so those are out as an option. I had hoped to try feeding it to them to see what happens, but our pediatrician strongly advised against that; apparently a little blood in the stools doesn’t just freak out the parents. I thought the next step would be to try a soy-based formula, but soy is also a common allergen, and there’s a good chance they’d be allergic to that too. Instead our pediatrician went straight to the hypoallergenic formula, called Alimentum, a named derived from the aluminum that gives it its flavor. Alimentum smells like rotten eggs, but only if those eggs were prepped by sitting in a hot car for a few days before cracking.
For some reason, the twins didn’t like the stuff. I even tried mixing it with breast milk to dilute the flavor, but they screamed as soon as it hit their tongue. In response, the pediatrician gave us a different hypoallergenic formula to try, but he told us that they hopefully won’t like it either because the stuff is $40 a can.** I took it home, diluted it with breast milk, and found more screaming.
Out of ideas and desperate to drop down to one dishwashing a day, I started preparing straight shots of Alimentum a couple times a day, hoping their tongues would eventually numb to the stuff and they’d eat it. To my surprise, they ate the straight stuff the first time I offered with no screaming. They weren’t as enthusiastic about it as they are with breast milk and their spit up afterward smelled really bad, but they ate it. Apparently the problem was mixing it with breast milk. So if anyone else has a baby who needs Alimentum but won’t eat a breast milk/Alimentum cocktail, try giving straight Alimentum. Soon, maybe you too will be washing significantly fewer dishes.
* If you don’t, here’s a summary: The boys developed a milk allergy.
** That’s opposed to the Alimentum, which is only $30 a can.
Ellie wants to cut down to four pumps a day. The problem with that routine, besides bearing the backlog of breast milk until her body adjusts, is she won’t produce enough milk to keep the twins fed. We’ll need to supplement with formula feedings, but finding a formula to feed them has been harder than finding a Seahawk fan outside of the 98xxx zip code area.
You may remember the boys developed a dairy allergy.* Ellie originally purged all dairy from her diet to accommodate their sensitivity. She has since resumed eating dairy in moderation with no ill effects since cutting all dairy is incredibly difficult to do, partially because so many products contain dairy ingredients, and partially because peppermint stick ice cream is so tasty.
The standard formulas are all milk-based, so those are out as an option. I had hoped to try feeding it to them to see what happens, but our pediatrician strongly advised against that; apparently a little blood in the stools doesn’t just freak out the parents. I thought the next step would be to try a soy-based formula, but soy is also a common allergen, and there’s a good chance they’d be allergic to that too. Instead our pediatrician went straight to the hypoallergenic formula, called Alimentum, a named derived from the aluminum that gives it its flavor. Alimentum smells like rotten eggs, but only if those eggs were prepped by sitting in a hot car for a few days before cracking.
For some reason, the twins didn’t like the stuff. I even tried mixing it with breast milk to dilute the flavor, but they screamed as soon as it hit their tongue. In response, the pediatrician gave us a different hypoallergenic formula to try, but he told us that they hopefully won’t like it either because the stuff is $40 a can.** I took it home, diluted it with breast milk, and found more screaming.
Out of ideas and desperate to drop down to one dishwashing a day, I started preparing straight shots of Alimentum a couple times a day, hoping their tongues would eventually numb to the stuff and they’d eat it. To my surprise, they ate the straight stuff the first time I offered with no screaming. They weren’t as enthusiastic about it as they are with breast milk and their spit up afterward smelled really bad, but they ate it. Apparently the problem was mixing it with breast milk. So if anyone else has a baby who needs Alimentum but won’t eat a breast milk/Alimentum cocktail, try giving straight Alimentum. Soon, maybe you too will be washing significantly fewer dishes.
* If you don’t, here’s a summary: The boys developed a milk allergy.
** That’s opposed to the Alimentum, which is only $30 a can.
posted by Matt at
10:12 PM
2 Comments:
I'm a mom of 9-month-old twins who were on Alimentum as a supplement for several months because of suspected allergies. We never had concrete evidence of the culprit, though (that blood would have freaked me out too!). But after their digestive systems developed (at about 5 or 6 months), their stomach issues diminished and we were able to switch to the cheaper formula. Maybe it's only temporary for you too. Our twins are fine now -- but I may never get over that awful smell!
By
Brenda, at 10:22 AM
Our twins had / have the same milk (protein) and soy allergy and ended up on Neocate, which is wildly expensive but comes as a perscription, so we just had to pay two $50 copays a month. Same nasty smell, horrendous diapers, and toxic spit -up, plus constipating, so they were on a laxative as well. At 2 years, we have just switched them to almond and rice milk: rice milk is actually cheaper than the organic milk we buy for our 5 year old daughter.
By
nhb, at 11:39 AM
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