CMPA and Aptamil Pepti 1

Hi, so my daughter struggled with formula from about 3 months. I knew something wasn't right. I BF for about 3 months before we went went to formula on its own. I soon realised something wasn't right. Her face went red during feeds, and she wouldn't finish a bottle EVER. i don't drink cows milk and haven't done for a while, So I thought it might be something to do with this. So I changed to a lactose formula when I noticed that it didn't improve, I contacted my GP, you can actually request a sample of the formula that gets prescribed for babies that have milk allergies. That's exactly what I did.I told them I tried different things.And I just knew something wasn't right. After I changed this milk, the difference was just insane. She was drinking her bottles for the first time. I eventually managed to get a referral to a dietitian and get her tested, which I think was done when she was a year old.They can't really do much testing before that.

It sounds like they may have an allergies. Also just be mind full about chnahing the formula so often I don't think this matters to much but I also don't think it helps when trying to work out what's wrong. I stuck to the same brand throughout our journey.

I hope this helps x

My baby is on SMA Althera and it’s very thin so needed carobel to be kept down, is the Aptamil Pepti 1 thin?

It took around 2 weeks to get the old formula out of her system and to start seeing improvements for my baby, we’re in the third week now and things are slowly getting better, she had similar symptoms all the stomach issues mucus poos etc but specifically rashes after feeds, swollen and red eyes, I was also wondering if she needed to go over to amino acid but decided to give it 1 more week to see if these clear up before I change again xx

I was told it could take 6-8 weeks to notice a change in formulas, but I wasn’t willing to wait that long as my LB also had really bloody stools. After about a week I demanded the completely dairy free option which was alfamino (assuming that’s what they want to offer you as it’s amino acid based)
I honestly wouldn’t bother with the other options and just go straight to the different formula change, for me it wasn’t worth seeing him so upset and in discomfort for so long when the change of milk could be a solution. After changing onto the alfamino, the bloody stools stopped within a day, although all of the other symptoms did take closer to the 6 weeks. He still has bad silent reflux, and still chokes on his bottle a lot. He also had tongue tie but it’s been cut for a while now. Because he keeps choking and can’t seem to latch onto the bottle, I’m pushing to try and get him assessed for a swallowing problem. He’s constantly choking on his milk and doesn’t take a whole feed

Hope you get sorted soon!!

We had to do a 6 week trial on aptamil pepti before they'd even discuss changing milks again, doctor and his dietician said that their digestive system needs a while to get used to the new milk and it can take a long time for the cows milk to make its way fully out of their systems, so you won't see improvements straight away usually. It took almost the entire 6 weeks for my boys symptoms to improve but since then he's been fine on aptamil pepti. He's 1 now and we're weaning off of formula and on to oat milk as we've not started the milk ladder yet 🙂 xx

yeh this was the same with us, but I demanded the other milk as it wasn’t fair on my LO, horrible seeing him like that :( a dr finally agreed and gave us the other milk

to be fair my doctors were really good, we stopped breastfeeding when he was 6 weeks old and by the time he was 8 weeks they'd prescribed him aptamil pepti for suspected CMPA as literally all of his symptoms started when we switched to formula! I know they don't really like to give out the amino based formulas as they're so expensive so I'm glad we got lucky and the pepti worked for him! X

that’s the thing, he has no issues drinking it, he just can’t keep it down, he had reflux with the other formulas too but this one is much worse as it comes out with force so I’m not sure if it’s due to it being so thin or because it’s not working for him 🤔he had a bad tummy on Carobel before so I’m reluctant to try it again but I don’t know what’s worse, vomiting or bad tummy 😒I’m glad to hear that your LG adapted to the Aptamil, I will give it longer to see what happens, I just worry when his eyes still go red and swell up after each feed which makes me wonder whether he needs the CMP free milk, it’s hard to see them in pain and he’s been struggling since birth but it was always put down to being a baby and babies cry naturally

we have been put on Aptamil Pepti 1 to see if symptoms improve but he still gets redness and swelling around eyes during and after feeds and rashes on the face- mostly cheeks and hairline. His eczema is still progressing as each time I change him it seems to have spread further and it looks red. He is also extremely fidgety like he is uncomfortable but it’s so hard to know what’s normal and what’s not, it’s my first baby so I’m learning as I go along but it’s tough seeing them in pain. We are awaiting to see a specialist and an allergist to confirm CMPA

it is quite thin although in my opinion it seems similar consistency to the goats milk one I was using but I could be wrong 🤔 we used Carobel before to help with his reflux but it made his tummy really bad so I’m reluctant to try it again but then I don’t know what’s lesser than the two evils- vomiting after feeds or tummy ache? It’s really hard to know what to do, the GP I saw said to ring after 2-3 days if symptoms aren’t improving so I don’t know if I should listen to her or wait out two weeks, I don’t want my LO to struggle too much longer 😒xx

yeah I heard that it takes time to notice a change although my GP said that some sort of improvement will be instant and we should know after 2-3 days if it’s working so I don’t know what to do. My LO is a big boy and should be drinking 150-180mls per feed but is currently having 90-120mls and bringing a lot of that back up after feeding so I don’t actually know how much stays in his tummy, his diarrhoea also seems worse as he’s gone from pooping once a day to pooping 4-6 times a day and it’s super runny, his urine has started smelling and it’s yellow compared to before, he just looks unwell really like the spark left his face and it pains me to see that. Are you using anything for the reflux? Mine had a tongue tie but had it cut when he was just over 1 week old

that’s interesting! Maybe I should wait until we see the specialist and see what they recommend 🤔it’s really hard to know what to do, my LO has been in pain for all of his life.
I did read that there is a correlation between CMPA and antibiotics use in pregnancy/labour or baby having antibiotics and mine has either had or been exposed to 5 different antibiotics so I’m wondering whether that wrecked his immune system 🤔I’ve been lucky that my current GP has been very understanding and is okay with prescribing the amino acid based formula if this is not working for us x

I've read about this! I had antibiotics during labour as my waters broke at 34 weeks due to a UTI and then my little boy had them when he was born as he was premature and quite poorly so I've wondered about the link between the two. Also just wanted to mention that similar to you when we moved him onto the aptamil pepti it was so thin it made his reflux 100X worse! We used carobel but it did upset his tummy, weaned him off of it slowly and went back down to the slowest size teat you can get and eventually he got used to the consistency and wasn't bringing loads up, he still did have reflux though until about 7/8 months then it really improved, think him starting solids really helped x

Hey, it took us 8 weeks to see my baby’s rash and mucus in stool disappear and that is normal, it doesn’t disappear straight away. We went on a similar journey and tried kendamil goat which helped just a tad, but ended up on aptamil pepti. After a year of being on it, we’ve discovered Aptamil use bovaer fed cows which we don’t like, so I’m a bit gutted we didn’t go for a different formula. If that doesn’t bother you, I’d stick with the Aptamil until your baby’s been on it for 8 weeks at least. I don’t have advice for the reflux I’m sorry! X

It took about a week for me to see an improvement in my daughter’s health and for her skin to start clearing up.

Aptamil Pepti is thin so I add a half scoop extra to thicken it up a little bit because she gets crazy reflux if it’s too thin. She’s gone from 9th centile at birth to 91st at 7 months and is thriving now.