My milk supply dropped after exclusively breast-feeding "successfully" for almost two months. I was forced to give my baby formula despite my obections. She was drinking Similac Advanced and was doing okay except for the fact that she had acid reflex. Her pediatrician thought it would be best to try her on a gentle formula to see if the broken down the milk protein would help so the pediatrician put my daughter on Enfamil gentlease.
Right away I noticed my daughter straining, had gas, crying and having trouble going poop. Her poop was grayish green and thicker than peanut butter. It was not quite constipation but it was definitely hard to pass and it was very evident every time my daughter went to the bathroom. I told my pediatrician about the troubles that my daughter had with constipation and the strange poop and she said that it was normal. She said my daughter would need a few days to adjust to the new formula and she was confident that it would help her reflux. I was very frustrated because I knew that this very very thick grey-green poop was not normal.
We continued on the formula until my daughter's two month check up visit. I told the pediatrician that the formula she had been on for two weeks had not changed.The doctor at that point seem concerned and said that she should've gotten used to the new formula by now and suggested that we go on a hypoallergenic formula such as Alimentum. I was very frustrated with this because Alimentum is so expensive! She also wanted us to take my daughter to a GI specialist because my daughter's reflux wasn't improving.
So that very day we gave my daughter some Alimentum. Despite it's disgusting smell, my daughter drank it right up! (As she does with just about anything) Within the first day of giving my daughter Alimentum she started having big green mucous poop! It looked like someone blew their nose in a diaper, it was gross! I told my husband and he said to keep an eye on it, that maybe it would get better.
When my daughter woke up for her 5am feed, I noticed that her face seemed a little rashy. I pulled off her shirt and realized that it was all over her body! I knew it had to be from the formula. As the day went on, the rash only got worse, more red and raised. My poor daughter cried all day. Not only did the formula not help her acid refulx, it made it worse! My daughter started coughing a lot (she coughs, wheezes, chokes, and gags because her reflux is so bad) But on the Alimentum, she started coughing and coughed up mucus! Of course this all happened over a holiday weekend and we could not get into see her pediatrician I was very concerned. We did not know what to do.
So I jumped on Dr.Google and read that some babies had a bad reaction to powdered Alimentum because the first ingredient is corn and some babies are sensitive to corn. This made a lot of sense that she would have a reaction to corn. Earlier when I was EBFing her, I was on an elimination diet to see if we could help her reflux. Corn and corn products were one of the MANY things I cut out. When we put her on the formula I was concerned a little about how much corn was in the formula but I did it anyways because that's what the pediatrician said. I continued to read and found out that Alimentum Ready-to-Feed was the only formula on the market that didn't contain corn! I was upset that alimentum was still our only choice, but I new we needed to do something.
My husband went out and bough some RTF and we gave it to my daughter on the next feed. We continued to give her the RTF the rest of the day and by morning her rash was nearly gone. I called the pediatrician to see if we could get in, talk about the reaction, talk about the formula, and possibly see if we could get a medial document to give to WIC for the Alimentum(it's so so so expensive!) and the doctor's assistant told us that the pediatrician had referred us to a GI specialist at the last visit and told us to follow up with them. I was FURIOUS. I explained that we wouldn't be able to get into the specialist for an entire month and we needed help now. She told me she would call me back. And there's a call I'm still waiting for. Needless to say we switched pediatricians!
Currently, we are still feeding my daughter Alimentum RTF. Her rash is gone, her breathing is better, but she still as mucus in her poop. She recently had a sensitivity test and we discovered that she is severely sensitive to corn and dairy. My guess is since the Alimentum is still derived from milk, that's what's causing the problems with the poop. We have an appointment soon to figure out if we need to switch to homemade goats milk formula. I am willing to do whatever works! We just want this little girl to eat! It's been rough between her tongue tie, my milk dropping, her allergies…the list goes on and on! I sure hope things get easier soon!