My pediatrician told me to use Isomil on our 4-month-old boy. He is on the Prosobee Mead Johnson product now. My question is how different are these two products?
My kid has a problem with gas in the middle of the night, which wakes him up screaming from a deep sleep. What suggestions could you offer?? We have a very difficult time burping him. Right now he has breast milk about 6 or so times a day and has a bottle at lunch and one at 6 or so. He then has breast milk at 8 or so and generally goes down at about 9 or so. If we are lucky he generally will sleep until 3 am when he wakes screaming and then we hear him farting. He had this same general problem in his 4th month or so when he was exclusively breastfed. I appreciate any and all help. Thank you!!
Austin is 17 weeks 26 inches long and about 13 lb.
Both Isomil and Prosobee are soy-based infant formulas commonly used with infants who have a milk protein or lactose intolerance or family history of milk allergy. Prosobee is iron fortified which is good because red blood cells live only 120 days and usually infants are still not eating iron-rich foods like meat, green leafy vegetables and whole grains after 4 months of age. Unfortunately, iron-fortified formulas can cause constipation which is unusual in breastfed infants. On the other hand, breast milk has highly absorbable iron and doesn’t cause constipation, but has higher lactose content.
Sounds like Austin has colic. It is more unusual, but not unheard of in breastfed infants. Did your pediatrician suggest using a soy-based formula exclusively? It sounds like you may want to try just the soy formula for a few days and see if Austin’s symptoms go away. In the meantime, the mother can pump and freeze her breast milk. (I know this isn’t fun, but neither is waking up to a screaming infant who is distressed by this as well.) It could be that the high lactose content of breast milk is fermenting and causing the intestinal gas.
It may or may not be something in the mother’s diet. Next try eliminating all caffeine-containing and gas-forming foods (broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, and onions), including beer while restarting breastfeeding and see if the infants colic improves.
