Hypoallergenic formulas

[Hollyadmin]

Has anybody tried these? Did they help? If so, did you notice improvement right away, or did it take a while? Was there a very obvious improvement, or ?

The research doesn't show a huge improvement in 'colic' symptoms when switching to hypoallergenic formulas, but of course if your baby is/was sensitive to or allergic to dairy, these must make a huge difference...

[beth2000]

No, my doctor told me that unless my DD showed signs of an actual milk allergy (blood in stool, rashes, etc) it wasn't necessary to get hypoallergenic formulas.  Instead we started using Enfamil Gentlease when she was about a month old and saw a significant difference in her gas and fussiness.  My DD isn't allergic to milk but she does seem very sensitive to lactose (as was I when I was a baby).  Gentlease has very little lactose in it.  We also still had to use special bottle systems...started out with Platex Vent Aire then switched to Dr Brown's when she was 3 months old. 

[Hollyadmin]

Good for your doctor!  It sounds like you actually have one who knows what he is talking about

Is the main difference with the Gentlease just that it has less lactose, or are there other differences between it and regular formula?

[fbsurvivor]

We tried Alimentum, at our doctor's recommendation (mainly because of my daughter's poor weight gain), but it didn't do much.  We only were using it to supplement anyway, so I'm not sure what good it did.  It cost a lot, so we switched to standard formula.

[sheeshoo2]

I am not sure about Gentlease, but from what I have heard it sounds like the milk protein is partially broken down and therefore easier to digest for most kids.

[Gracie2010]

I just recently switched my daughter to Gentlease and it seems to be working pretty well.  I feed her formula during the day and the breast milk at night.  She still has her fussy periods during the day but it doesn't seem to be the formula that is causing it.  She does seem to be digesting this a lot better.  A lot of people I've heard use a soy based formula instead of a formula that is milk based.  I would suggest trying a milk based with the proteins broken down before using soy which could cause your baby to become constipated.  I'm no expert by any means but it's all just what I've heard from others.

[MDT]

My son was on 8 different formulas before we found one that worked.  We tried everything that Enfamil provided, including Gentlease, and came to the conclusion that he had problems with the milk protein.  We switched him to soy after that and he seemed to be fine for awhile on that, but after a few weeks, a lot of the same problems started to pop up again.  Thinking he had allergies to both milk and soy protein, our doctor gave us a sample of Nutramigen.  I tried it once and he took it fine, but he would not eat it again and it took him awhile to trust his bottle enough to even eat his old soy formula.  There was no way I was going to make him eat it after that reaction.  Just the smell of it from when I mixed his bottles was enough to make me gag.  It's no wonder he wouldn't eat it.

After talking to a few other moms about formula, I decided to try Good Start.  Started with the gentle milk-based version and the same problems that he had with milk came back.  We then tried Good Start soy after that and the difference has been night and day.  I'm so glad I didn't have to make him eat the hypoallergenic stuff.  That would have been a nightmare.

And as for soy causing constipation, for my son, he was worse off in that respect on milk-based formula than soy.