After the difficulties I had breastfeeding we began introducing more and more formula into his diet. At 5 weeks we were down to about 1 breast milk bottle a day and at 6 weeks, I put away the pump. We thought he had been doing fine on the formula and hadn't seen any blood in the diaper since switching to soy formula. However, it can take a couple of weeks to show a reaction to formula. It appears that Brody didn't only get my nose, he also got my sensitive stomach (I had milk and soy allergies as an infant).
Shortly after 6 weeks Brody started showing digestion issues and became very constipated. Since it's not unusual for babies to have this type of reaction to feeding changes, the doctor just gave us some tips to "get things going." We expected to see a change within a few days. However, 5 days later, he was showing no signs of improvement. He was pooping every day, but the consistency was much harder than it should be. We called the pedi again...
Luckily we have a really good pediatrician and after I talked to a nurse he called me back personally to discuss Brody's problems. He said based on Brody's reaction to the soy formula, his reaction when we tried milk-based formula and his fussiness/gassiness problems, that it is likely he has both a milk-allergy and soy protein allergy. We don't know for a fact that it's allergies, but for some reason he's not tolerating the other formulas.
So the next step...hypoallergenic formula. Our doctor said he doesn't make the switch lightly but it looks like the right option at this point. Unfortunately, it's almost twice the cost of regular formula. He did give us a couple of samples to get started, so that saves us a few dollars.
Our next appointment is in two weeks, so hopefully we'll be seeing some improvement by then and will reassess. Many babies outgrow allergies by 6 months (or so I've read), so hopefully he won't be on this expensive formula for the next year!
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