First time trying SMA althera!

Hi Jess, my LO was on Althera, he’s now been moved to Alfamino. Tbh mine wasn’t too bad taking it. I was advised to just give it to him but if he didn’t take it straight off then to mix it with his old stuff, so 1 scoop Althera and 4 scoops other formula, then the next one do 2 scoops Althera and 3 scoops other formula and so on. Our consultant also said that it would take between 4 and 6 weeks for all the symptoms to go, and it did take a couple of weeks for everything to settle. Have they advised you to ‘challenge’ after all symptoms have cleared so you can confirm it’s definitely a cows milk protein allergy? My LO was on Althera for a couple of months but then symptoms came back so he was moved to Alfamino which is for severe cows milk protein allergy. Not sure if he’s allergic to lactose as well. hope that helps a bit…sorry about the essay! x

Hey so not had this milk, but it's usually a 6 week detox and healing of the gut process they need to go through. It will likely get worse in the middle for a bit so don't be discouraged stick with it. If after the 6 weeks there's little to no improvement go back and ask for something like puremino that's amino based as I think this one's a hydrolysed formula where it still has the protein in it but broken down to make it easier to tolerate. Some babies thrive on these milks even with Severe symptoms (like my son) and others need a full removal. Definitely try and transition her into the new milk as the above comment has suggested as it should make it easier for them to get used to. If you need any advice or anything feel free to reach out xx

@Miriam thanks for this, so my consultant didn’t tell us how to give it to her. I’ve just done her first bottle of the day with just the althera formula. She took it fine, should I stick with just that throughout the day? Or incorporate her normal formula aswel? Can I also ask what it’s meant to look like? I was very surprised by the colour of it compared normal milk once made!

We just went straight onto it without phasing out the old formula. Symptoms cleared up within a couple of weeks but because it’s so thin we’re now struggling with reflux so we’ve now got gaviscon infant too. It’s like a yellowish colour and very watery compared to normal formula x

@Ella thanks for this! She has really bad reflux already so this is my fear that it’s so thin that it’s going to make it worse! We have infant gaviscon so will pop this in her feed also, did you find the gaviscon helped? How often are you giving it to them?

@Jess Barton if you find the gaviscon isn't helping as it may only be allowed three times a day (standard dose) carobel would work in the bottles the gaviscon isn't in it's readily available on Amazon its by cow and gate and really useful xx

We are coming to the end of our 2 week trial on Althera. My LB has absolutely wolfed the milk down and is much more comfortable. He also has reflux and I must say he is still sick a lot, however it doesn’t bother him half as much now whereas before he was crying. We have our review on Wednesday and I’m going to ask for a thickener because the milk is like water, we tried infant gaviscon and it made him more sick 🤦🏼‍♀️. Would also say it sticks like hell to your bottles!!

We got given Althera to try but my little one couldn't tolerate it, so after a week we were given Alfamino. They start you on something like Althera first because although it still contains milk, it's broken down to make it easier to digest. The majority of cmpa babies are able to tolerate this milk. If you aren't one of those, you'll get moved up to an amino acid formula (like alfamino) which is used to treat moderate to severe allergies. My first kiddo had cmpa too, and we found that when he was on the right milk there was an immediate difference... but it did take weeks for all the symptoms to disappear