Got Milk-Based Formula?
A couple weeks after we brought the boys home from the NICU, they showed signs of a dairy allergy. Specifically they showed colitis in response to the dairy in their diet, with “colitis” being one of those words that if you don’t know what it means, you don’t want to. In response, we immediately stopped enriching their breast milk with formula like the NICU directed us. Ellie also removed all dairy from her diet so the offending protein wouldn’t contaminate the breast milk.
Ellie successfully avoided dairy for about three days before succumbing to the allure of cheese. At that point Ellie slowly added dairy back into her life as we determined if the dairy protein really would transfer into breast milk, or if the hospital was just pulling a prank on us. Nothing bad happened to the boys as Ellie’s butter intake increased, so she resumed her normal diet, and the boys continued eating with no sign of colitis or anything else that would freak us out.
When the boys needed formula because Ellie, as wonderful as she is, is only one woman, their pediatrician instructed them to eat a special, hypoallergenic formula like Alimentum or Nutramigen. These formulas lack not only the dairy protein, but also a pleasing odor or (I presume) taste. The boys showed some reluctance switching from the sweet taste of mother’s milk to the cabbage-soaked-in-rotten-egg taste of Nutramigen, but eventually realized that, as awful as the stuff is, eating Nutramigen is (barely) more pleasant than starving. Their pediatrician instructed us to leave them on Nutramigen for several months, though we could try the milk-based formula again when they’re older to see if they’ve outgrown the dairy allergy.
They’re now several months older, and we’re trying the milk-based formula again. We have several reasons for doing so. The milk-based formula has to taste better, though the boys don’t seem to notice, possibly because its water-heavily-fortified-with-iron odor indicates that it still doesn’t taste good. Nutramigen tends to congeal into nipple-clogging clumps, while ordinary formula dissolves better and just tends to bubble into a lot of head in the bottle. Ordinary formula scoops easier than Nutramigen, which usually leaks large clusters onto the counter from the container to the bottle. Ordinary formula is easier to find than Nutramigen, as most grocery stores have more shelves filled with milk-based formula* than cans of Nutramigen in stock.**
Most importantly, Nutramigen is too expensive. A can of Nutramigen is less than two-thirds the size of a milk-based counterpart. Plus no one makes a generic hypoallergenic formula. That means feeding the twins costs more than I had expected to pay until the boys were at least old enough to demand a pizza party.
We’re reintroducing dairy to the boys slowly. The first step was some mashed potatoes a couple weeks ago, the Grandma’s Special kind made with real butter and cream. No colitis with that one, so we started giving them milk-based formula for one of their four daily bottles. We’ve been doing that for a couple days now, and everything looks normal. Tory is crankier than usual, but Tory is also cutting more teeth than usual, so I’m hoping it’s coincidence. If everything continues to go well, I’ll keep increasing their milk-based formula intake until our stockpile of Nutramigen is exhausted, and they’re eating all milk-based formula. I need to be careful during the switch, watching carefully for rashes or apparent abdominal pain from an allergic reaction. I’ll also need to keep a large supply of diaper paraphernalia handy and clean outfits, just in case.
* Three is the average number.
** Zero seems to be the number I usually find.
Ellie successfully avoided dairy for about three days before succumbing to the allure of cheese. At that point Ellie slowly added dairy back into her life as we determined if the dairy protein really would transfer into breast milk, or if the hospital was just pulling a prank on us. Nothing bad happened to the boys as Ellie’s butter intake increased, so she resumed her normal diet, and the boys continued eating with no sign of colitis or anything else that would freak us out.
When the boys needed formula because Ellie, as wonderful as she is, is only one woman, their pediatrician instructed them to eat a special, hypoallergenic formula like Alimentum or Nutramigen. These formulas lack not only the dairy protein, but also a pleasing odor or (I presume) taste. The boys showed some reluctance switching from the sweet taste of mother’s milk to the cabbage-soaked-in-rotten-egg taste of Nutramigen, but eventually realized that, as awful as the stuff is, eating Nutramigen is (barely) more pleasant than starving. Their pediatrician instructed us to leave them on Nutramigen for several months, though we could try the milk-based formula again when they’re older to see if they’ve outgrown the dairy allergy.
They’re now several months older, and we’re trying the milk-based formula again. We have several reasons for doing so. The milk-based formula has to taste better, though the boys don’t seem to notice, possibly because its water-heavily-fortified-with-iron odor indicates that it still doesn’t taste good. Nutramigen tends to congeal into nipple-clogging clumps, while ordinary formula dissolves better and just tends to bubble into a lot of head in the bottle. Ordinary formula scoops easier than Nutramigen, which usually leaks large clusters onto the counter from the container to the bottle. Ordinary formula is easier to find than Nutramigen, as most grocery stores have more shelves filled with milk-based formula* than cans of Nutramigen in stock.**
Most importantly, Nutramigen is too expensive. A can of Nutramigen is less than two-thirds the size of a milk-based counterpart. Plus no one makes a generic hypoallergenic formula. That means feeding the twins costs more than I had expected to pay until the boys were at least old enough to demand a pizza party.
We’re reintroducing dairy to the boys slowly. The first step was some mashed potatoes a couple weeks ago, the Grandma’s Special kind made with real butter and cream. No colitis with that one, so we started giving them milk-based formula for one of their four daily bottles. We’ve been doing that for a couple days now, and everything looks normal. Tory is crankier than usual, but Tory is also cutting more teeth than usual, so I’m hoping it’s coincidence. If everything continues to go well, I’ll keep increasing their milk-based formula intake until our stockpile of Nutramigen is exhausted, and they’re eating all milk-based formula. I need to be careful during the switch, watching carefully for rashes or apparent abdominal pain from an allergic reaction. I’ll also need to keep a large supply of diaper paraphernalia handy and clean outfits, just in case.
* Three is the average number.
** Zero seems to be the number I usually find.
posted by Matt at
11:44 PM
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