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Which are you switching to? I did BF but we used Neocate and it couldn't be warmed up.

Hugs. No advice on the hypoallergenic but with ds, even early on, he did show a preference for certain formula over others and breastmilk over formula. But we just kept at it and he learned to accept it and he is totally fine now. Just wanted to also say you have done a completely fabulous job of keeping up BFing throughout the last few months!

Both my kids have had major intolerances too. With my daughter Nutramigen was the recommended option for formula. We ended up eliminating dairy, soy, gluten, eggs, nuts and shellfish and that did the trick so she was EBF until she outgrew all her intolerances around 14 months. My son seems to be worse than my daughter (but maybe I just don't remember how bad she was?). I've eliminated dairy and soy without much improvement, just eliminated the same additional 4 foods I did with his sister and we are seeing GI at the end of this month if that doesn't do it.

For the record, you are not supposed to heat Nutramigen either. I did. We kept nursing because I only had to eliminate a few things, but I lost my freezer stash so we supplemented with Nutramigen and he flat out would not drink anything from a bottle unless it was borderline too hot. It Nutramigen had been the bulk of his nutrition I would have started with it hot and worked to wean the temp down to the recommended room temp.

We cold turkeyed it. 2 days on Alimentum and then we did a 2 week+ Nutramigen challenge - both times it was just cold turkey. I added more junk to my elimination during the Nutramigen challenge (had been dairy and soy and gassy and spicy food free) and after the challenge replaced one formula bottle with breastmilk each day for another week to see how DS tolerated it. During the formula challenge I just pumped and froze - doctor said if he could go back on BM after the challenge or even further down the line we could try it. I was basically eating rice, chicken, and nori at the time, with vegan shakes fortified with coconut oil leading up to the challenge and the weeks on Nutramigen gave me time to filter everything out of my system. DS never got any real food allergy diagnosis but his colic and reflux were extreme enough where we tried everything. He did successfully go back on BM, I stayed on the crazy diet, and when he went off reflux meds we gave him the frozen stuff from before my BM was irritant free.

Hugs mama. Not a ton of advice but I am down this road with you and I know it's hard. I first cut out just dairy, then all top 8 allergens plus corn, tomatoes, chocolate, strawberries and THEN right after Christmas did a total elimination diet where I just ate turkey, pears, sweet potatoes, zucchini and olive oil for 2 weeks. That seems to have gotten DS to baseline so we're slowly adding foods back in.

That being said, we tried to do a trial of hypoallergenic formula. DS REFUSED Neocate, could not get him to drink more than a sip, and he would just cry. So pitiful. So his GI suggested we do Elecare mixed with Vanilla Elecare Jr. I forget the exact mix but it's like 3/4 plain Elecare, 1/4 Vanilla Elecare Jr. DS took that begrudgingly but only from DH, would not drink it from me and only drank maybe 2-3 oz.

So maybe that tip will help if you can't get your LO to drink the formula. It is pretty gross stuff, I don't blame them. It smells gross too.

You could maybe do a trial of formula for a few days to see if there is any improvement. We found that a lot of his symptoms unfortunately didn't really get better because we think he also has some delayed gastric emptying/GI transit which is contributing to everything.

Will be thinking of you!

@novbaby1112 yeah I totally felt trapped into it b/c DS wouldn't drink the Neocate. Also we (and his GI) felt like there was some delayed gastric emptying and with that in mind, breastmilk would STILL be the easiest thing for him to digest (if I could get my diet cleaned up).

It's seriously one of the hardest things I have EVER done! I cried every day! I ate literally a whole pound of ground turkey and like 3 sweet potatoes every day and went through a big bottle of olive oil in a week, just to keep my calories and milk supply up. Going down to just those 5 foods or however many did seem to clear up his poop issues. No more blood, went from TONS of globs of thick mucus to only a little, and actually better color and some cottage cheese curds (you know what I mean, right? before his poop was just mucus and nasty). His poops still seem not quite "right" to me but much much better. And the remaining poop issues I sort of blame on the rest of his GI issues.

Unfortunately his reflux and vomiting is still awful, and we and GI have come to the conclusion that we've basically reached maximum improvement on that front with regard to my diet (i.e. he would not be any better if he was on Neocate or Elecare). He's on Nexium and Zantac and we are about to start domperidone for delayed stomach emptying, which will hopefully help the vomiting (I mean he has a lot of reflux spitting up/vomiting, but vomits up curdled breastmilk hours after he eats).

Anyway, I totally understand how hard it is, and whatever you do - switch to formula or eliminate more - hang in there. I sort of wish I could have switched so I could eat whatever I want!! And I probably could have switched if I really pushed DS to do it. I just felt like I needed to try before I stopped BFing.

Also, with a prescription your insurance may cover the formula. Liquid concentrate is sometimes less expensive than RTF.

@NovBaby1112: also yes our insurance did cover it. It was a huge fight to actually get paid for it but our pediatrician called ins co several times and I called weekly and we got thousands covered.

@NovBaby1112: wanted to know what ended up working for you? In in the same exact boat and DS (6 months) will only take small amounts of the Alimentum. I bought some RTF Alimentum to try today. Hoping he'll take that better. We are going back to the GI doctor tomorrow because even on an elimination diet, he is still having tons of mucous and blood