Change pediatrician or formula?
Gonna provide a loose timeline so that the post isn’t super long. Just kinda long.
I’m a FTM and my goal is to exclusively breast feed but not sure if it’s helping or harming.
-when LO was born I was having trouble with my milk supply so we supplemented with formula (similac 360 sensitive) but we were combo feeding and I was pumping to get my supply up.
-LO started having very small specks of blood in poop around 3 weeks old
-pedi stated it’s CMPA and to switch to similac alimentum RTF
It gets a little blurry here because I was so sleep deprived so I can’t remember everything clearly but the blood stopped appearing in LO’s poop but poop might’ve still been mucousy. Pedi then said we should switch to the powder form of the alimentum.
-switched to powder around 6 or 7 weeks old.
Around this time I also went out to a steakhouse for my SO’s bday and told the staff I had a milk allergy so no butter/ranch/cheese on my salmon and salad. They did end up putting cheese on my salad so I had to send it back. But it seemed like everything else was fine.
-LO began having very mucousy/watery poop.
I thought it was because of me (maybe they put butter on my salmon when we went out to eat) so I reduced the amount I was breast feeding thinking I was causing my LO harm. I closely monitored what I ate to ensure I wasn’t consuming any dairy. Around this time I started having some PPD because I wasn’t producing enough milk and I felt guilty LO was having tummy issues.
-LO continued to have mucousy and watery poops for another month. Contacted Pedi and she said to go back to RTF formula or switch to the amino acid based formula and cut out the top 9 allergens from my diet and breast feed more.
-switched to amino acid based formula about 2 weeks ago and LO’s poop is still mucousy and watery but not AS watery as before but still not peanut butter consistency.
Also, poop is seedy often green/yellow or dark green.
Still combo feeding but I feel defeated and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know if I can get my supply to go up since I was already struggling before…and it doesn’t seem like the formula is really helping. I also now have to cook at home for every meal since takeout usually has one of the 9 allergens. Minor inconvenience since I can’t just buy something to eat. I don’t mind I just wish I knew what would help my LO and it just feels like the pedi is guessing? Like can we not test my LO for allergies to narrow it down? Is there another formula we should try? Is it normal for LO’s poop to be on the watery side if they don’t seem bothered?? Is my pedi just being lazy or are her responses normal? I have another appointment in a couple of weeks so I’m going to bring it up again but I would appreciate any feedback/ advice in the meantime.
Thanks and sorry for the long post.