Recommendations for formula for baby with dairy allergy

[Anonymous]

If it’s not a true allergy but more of a sensitivity, you might be able to get away with a partially hydrolyzed formula like Gentlease and not have to use Alimentum or Nutramigen but obviously something to talk to your doctor about. We had blood and mucus in stool and eczema and moved from standard formula to Gentlease and everything was fine but it will be case by case.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Also will add that my insurance (Kaiser) covered the alimentum ready to feed basically in full. It was delivered to our house by a medical supply company. Awesome! So don’t hesitate to ask. I did stop breastfeeding f because even removing dairy my baby was very unhappy. Hard for me to know in hindsight if it was just colic on top of things but he slept a lot better on the alimentum rtf (he was waking up what seemed like crying in pain every hour or so, it was crazy!)

How did you get Kaiser to cover the formula? My 8 week old is struggling with a milk allergy and my dr suggested a soy formula but he is much fussier on it and the blood in his stools has returned. Wish my pediatrician would give more definitive guidance on what to try next.

I’m the pp, can’t believe I happen to see this. I found our pediatrician (who we love) wasn’t very informed on this. I had to push for a GI referral. Really push. It’s the only referral I’ve ever had to push for with Kaiser but with the return of blood I would push for it. The pediatric gi was WAY more informed and when I asked about coverage for the formula she immediately had her nurse put it in and Kaiser approved. And she helped us decide to go on a new formula. A soy formula makes little sense as many babies with milk protein intolerances are also sensitive to soy. Alimentum ready to feed is what worked well for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Also will add that my insurance (Kaiser) covered the alimentum ready to feed basically in full. It was delivered to our house by a medical supply company. Awesome! So don’t hesitate to ask. I did stop breastfeeding f because even removing dairy my baby was very unhappy. Hard for me to know in hindsight if it was just colic on top of things but he slept a lot better on the alimentum rtf (he was waking up what seemed like crying in pain every hour or so, it was crazy!)

How did you get Kaiser to cover the formula? My 8 week old is struggling with a milk allergy and my dr suggested a soy formula but he is much fussier on it and the blood in his stools has returned. Wish my pediatrician would give more definitive guidance on what to try next.

I’m the pp, can’t believe I happen to see this. I found our pediatrician (who we love) wasn’t very informed on this. I had to push for a GI referral. Really push. It’s the only referral I’ve ever had to push for with Kaiser but with the return of blood I would push for it. The pediatric gi was WAY more informed and when I asked about coverage for the formula she immediately had her nurse put it in and Kaiser approved. And she helped us decide to go on a new formula. A soy formula makes little sense as many babies with milk protein intolerances are also sensitive to soy. Alimentum ready to feed is what worked well for us.

Also just want to add that I’m so sorry! This was SUCH a hard time for us, we did get through it and have a very happy almost 2 year old who outgrew his sensitivity by a year. I hope you’re able to get a referral to speak with the GI soon and find the right formula. Once we found a formula that worked things got progressively better for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I’m the pp, can’t believe I happen to see this. I found our pediatrician (who we love) wasn’t very informed on this. I had to push for a GI referral. Really push. It’s the only referral I’ve ever had to push for with Kaiser but with the return of blood I would push for it. The pediatric gi was WAY more informed and when I asked about coverage for the formula she immediately had her nurse put it in and Kaiser approved. And she helped us decide to go on a new formula. A soy formula makes little sense as many babies with milk protein intolerances are also sensitive to soy. Alimentum ready to feed is what worked well for us.

Thanks this is super helpful - my pediatrician offered a GI referral right off the bat today so hopefully I’ll get the coverage for the formula. Just tried Gerber extensive HA and baby screamed after every gulp. Going to try the Alimentum ready to feed tomorrow instead since at least I know now that it’s on Kaiser’s approved list and I don’t want to go through this nightmare formula transition more times than necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I’m the pp, can’t believe I happen to see this. I found our pediatrician (who we love) wasn’t very informed on this. I had to push for a GI referral. Really push. It’s the only referral I’ve ever had to push for with Kaiser but with the return of blood I would push for it. The pediatric gi was WAY more informed and when I asked about coverage for the formula she immediately had her nurse put it in and Kaiser approved. And she helped us decide to go on a new formula. A soy formula makes little sense as many babies with milk protein intolerances are also sensitive to soy. Alimentum ready to feed is what worked well for us.

Argh GI put in a “case request” for alimentum RTF but Kaiser denied it and said that is considered food and they only cover amino acid-based formulas… can you share who your GI was? Might be better informed than the one I was referred to. I have appealed but it’s so frustrating knowing that Kaiser has covered it before but is refusing to do so for us.

[Anonymous]

No one has mentioned it yet that there are even more hydrolyzed formulas if even Alimentum causes a reaction. Alfamino and Puramino are available by prescription for severe allergies.

[Anonymous]

If not allergy, could try HIPP HA (I buy this online and it’s a formula very close to the composition of breast milk) and tastes MUCH better than the brands sold in the US. They ship from Europe, not sold in US stores. There’s some other European brands like Holle that are goats milk based and others that are more plant based.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I’m the pp, can’t believe I happen to see this. I found our pediatrician (who we love) wasn’t very informed on this. I had to push for a GI referral. Really push. It’s the only referral I’ve ever had to push for with Kaiser but with the return of blood I would push for it. The pediatric gi was WAY more informed and when I asked about coverage for the formula she immediately had her nurse put it in and Kaiser approved. And she helped us decide to go on a new formula. A soy formula makes little sense as many babies with milk protein intolerances are also sensitive to soy. Alimentum ready to feed is what worked well for us.

Thanks this is super helpful - my pediatrician offered a GI referral right off the bat today so hopefully I’ll get the coverage for the formula. Just tried Gerber extensive HA and baby screamed after every gulp. Going to try the Alimentum ready to feed tomorrow instead since at least I know now that it’s on Kaiser’s approved list and I don’t want to go through this nightmare formula transition more times than necessary.

Screaming can also be reflux so go to the GI.

[Anonymous]

I had one baby that Hipp HA worked great for (diary, soy, and corn intolerant so literally all US formulas didn't work). I had another that needed something more broken down and that left us with amino acid formula, which she wouldn't take. The taste is really bitter. Ended up changing my diet for a little over a year until she was weaned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I’m the pp, can’t believe I happen to see this. I found our pediatrician (who we love) wasn’t very informed on this. I had to push for a GI referral. Really push. It’s the only referral I’ve ever had to push for with Kaiser but with the return of blood I would push for it. The pediatric gi was WAY more informed and when I asked about coverage for the formula she immediately had her nurse put it in and Kaiser approved. And she helped us decide to go on a new formula. A soy formula makes little sense as many babies with milk protein intolerances are also sensitive to soy. Alimentum ready to feed is what worked well for us.

Argh GI put in a “case request” for alimentum RTF but Kaiser denied it and said that is considered food and they only cover amino acid-based formulas… can you share who your GI was? Might be better informed than the one I was referred to. I have appealed but it’s so frustrating knowing that Kaiser has covered it before but is refusing to do so for us.

Gosh that's so weird. I wonder if this makes a difference but the initial request was actually put in for an amino acid based formula (elecare) but then my son basically stopped eating because he hated the taste so much, so I switched to Alimentum RTF and the GI was able to change the referral and somehow it worked... I'm so sorry! I hate to have led you astray as I COMPLETELY understand the stress of the switching etc.

I just went and checked in the KP app and the pediatric GI was Asha Willis but I'm so sorry to say that it says she has an out of office until 5/15 (I found her through searching the message app because i couldn't remember). I would suspect she must have had a baby! She was a fairly young doctor. Ugh so that isn't helpful.

I personally wouldn't move to the amino acid based formulas unless you have to because the taste really is awful and it created so many issues for my baby (bottle aversion because I didn't understand what was going on and was worried he wasn't eating, so pressured and then it all just got worse). If baby needs it that is a different story but we were lucky ours did well on the Alimentum RTF but I know it is expensive too.

Truly some of my lowest times - sending you all the energy I can and hope you all are through it soon.

[Anonymous]

Sorry that was the pp from kaiser above. I just reread your post and the screaming also did raise a question for me re: bottle aversion. If you start to see any of these signs, don't hesitate to look into it. We ended up having to have a session with one of their consultants and it helped so much and in a couple (very hard) weeks my baby was eating so much better. We had started to go down the reflux route as well and it wasn't reflux, it was bottle aversion from all the stress of feeding.

https://www.babycareadvice.com/blogs/bottle-feeding/feeding-aversion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gosh that's so weird. I wonder if this makes a difference but the initial request was actually put in for an amino acid based formula (elecare) but then my son basically stopped eating because he hated the taste so much, so I switched to Alimentum RTF and the GI was able to change the referral and somehow it worked... I'm so sorry! I hate to have led you astray as I COMPLETELY understand the stress of the switching etc.

I just went and checked in the KP app and the pediatric GI was Asha Willis but I'm so sorry to say that it says she has an out of office until 5/15 (I found her through searching the message app because i couldn't remember). I would suspect she must have had a baby! She was a fairly young doctor. Ugh so that isn't helpful.

I personally wouldn't move to the amino acid based formulas unless you have to because the taste really is awful and it created so many issues for my baby (bottle aversion because I didn't understand what was going on and was worried he wasn't eating, so pressured and then it all just got worse). If baby needs it that is a different story but we were lucky ours did well on the Alimentum RTF but I know it is expensive too.

This makes a lot of sense - My GI was able to change the request to Elecare which was approved, but I'm not sure if my baby will drink it yet. If that transition doesn't work I'll ask him to see if he can switch it back to Alimentum RTF like Dr Willis did for you, otherwise I'll just have to pay out of pocket (I should be grateful that it seems like the Alimentum is at least solving the allergy issues and he doesn't mind drinking it).

Unfortunately like the previous poster mentioned he also has reflux but at least our pediatrician is very responsive and is helping tweak the meds to figure that part of the puzzle out so I'm hopeful we can get it under control.

Really helpful advice on watching for bottle aversion too - I'll keep an eye on that during the transition to Elecare. I would hate to introduce yet another problem if it's not totally necessary.

Thank you for all your supportive advice. Thank god babies are so cute because this allergy/feeding stuff is a nightmare (he also had suck/swallow dysphagia due to my overactive let-down not being diagnosed till 7 weeks!). Whew!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gosh that's so weird. I wonder if this makes a difference but the initial request was actually put in for an amino acid based formula (elecare) but then my son basically stopped eating because he hated the taste so much, so I switched to Alimentum RTF and the GI was able to change the referral and somehow it worked... I'm so sorry! I hate to have led you astray as I COMPLETELY understand the stress of the switching etc.

I just went and checked in the KP app and the pediatric GI was Asha Willis but I'm so sorry to say that it says she has an out of office until 5/15 (I found her through searching the message app because i couldn't remember). I would suspect she must have had a baby! She was a fairly young doctor. Ugh so that isn't helpful.

I personally wouldn't move to the amino acid based formulas unless you have to because the taste really is awful and it created so many issues for my baby (bottle aversion because I didn't understand what was going on and was worried he wasn't eating, so pressured and then it all just got worse). If baby needs it that is a different story but we were lucky ours did well on the Alimentum RTF but I know it is expensive too.

This makes a lot of sense - My GI was able to change the request to Elecare which was approved, but I'm not sure if my baby will drink it yet. If that transition doesn't work I'll ask him to see if he can switch it back to Alimentum RTF like Dr Willis did for you, otherwise I'll just have to pay out of pocket (I should be grateful that it seems like the Alimentum is at least solving the allergy issues and he doesn't mind drinking it).

Unfortunately like the previous poster mentioned he also has reflux but at least our pediatrician is very responsive and is helping tweak the meds to figure that part of the puzzle out so I'm hopeful we can get it under control.

Really helpful advice on watching for bottle aversion too - I'll keep an eye on that during the transition to Elecare. I would hate to introduce yet another problem if it's not totally necessary.

Thank you for all your supportive advice. Thank god babies are so cute because this allergy/feeding stuff is a nightmare (he also had suck/swallow dysphagia due to my overactive let-down not being diagnosed till 7 weeks!). Whew!

Good luck!! Ugh sounds like it has been a long road, mine also struggled with silent reflux we thought but in hindsight it may have just been the bottle aversion. Who knows, i'm so glad baby is tolerating Alimentum RTF well. Crossing fingers Elecare goes well. My friend's son did very well on it. But some babies do reject it because it's quite bitter. Kind of depends on temperment it seems, my son is almost 2 now and still very particular with taste! ha. It really is a nightmare!! But you're hopefully on the tail end of the hardest part if you have a formula that is working. Crossing fingers.

[Anonymous]

I like this site for formula recommendations: https://brainhealthfrombirth.com/formula/

The author also wrote a book with a chapter on formula and allergies.

[Anonymous]

Nutramigen. Two DD’s - first had a dairy intolerance and GERD. 5 years later DD2 has a true milk allergy. Nutramigen worked for both.