SMA - Too Rich??

[Alisha1985]

My son is 6wks old on Sat. I feed him the SMA Gold. (Im sure a lot of you use this).
He takes around 6oz every 3 - 4 hours and drains about 3 of his bottles. Hes on size 2 teats (advent brand) and usually takes around 10 - 15 mins to finish what he wants. I'll wind him for a good length of time, change him and have some cuddles and then put him down to sleep but no sooner have I put him down, he's throwing up milk or sometimes sick which then wakes him up so i have to give him cuddles again to settle him because he's crying so much... then ill put him down again and then the same thing happens again. Hes constantly niggly and pulls his legs up under his tummy which im guessing means he has tummy ache. I was wondering if maybe the sma could be possibly too rich for him and maybe i should try swapping to cow & gate... or is this the wrong thing to do?? Poor little man is hardly getting any sleep. He was fine when I first started him on it but now this is happening. I was also thinking that maybe i could just possibly have a sicky baby??? Anyone have any similar experiences or any advice to give? Im going to contact my HV in the morning but thought i would try you other mums first

 

[blahblahblah]

As it's SMA, I'd definitely suggest trying a different brand. There seem to be quite a few LO's out there that it doesn't suit! C&G and Aptamil are the ones that most of us seem to get on better with, so I'd suggest trying one of those. Bear in mind that it will take a few days to work through his system and get a true idea of there is an improvement - although you'll probably have an idea within a couple of feeds.

It is possibly that your baby is just a bit sicky, or may have reflux. Both of these can be improved by various methods - comfort formula or gaviscon being the main ones - I wouldn't suggest trying either without GP or HV advice though.

It is also worth considering anything else that might be causing the problem. My LO always had niggly bits of wind left behind, and sometimes I think he had a bit more than he needed too. I also found that he was wayyy more sicky with room temperature bottles - if I made them quite warm it stayed down a lot better. You might find that just doing things a little differently with these sorts of things can make quite a difference.

Try not to worry though, there's always a way to improve these things

 

[Nicsta26]

We had exactly the same problem with sma, he was fine the 1st couple of weeks he was on it, he then started having alot more wind and bringing up alot. His poo's were also quiet thick. We have now changed to amtamil and he seems to be alot happier and his poo's are alot thinner which apparently is a down side to amtamil as it's so close to breast milk there poo is similar to a bf baby. The HV did tell me that sma is a very rich formula as well as c and g and amtamil and Heinz (discountinued) are not so rich.

 

[EMYJC]

Lucas has been on SMA gold since I switched over from BF at 7 weeks. He started on Aptamil and it didnt agree with him, but has been great on SMA. Every baby is different. Your baby is having a lot for his age. Lucas only just manages 6 oz bottles and he's 16 weeks. Maybe he is sicking up the extra milk that he doesnt need and his tummy is overfilling? Is it cottage cheese consistency that comes back or pure milk? Babies will always sick back the milk they dont need. Just a thought?

 

[Alisha1985]

Lucas has been on SMA gold since I switched over from BF at 7 weeks. He started on Aptamil and it didnt agree with him, but has been great on SMA. Every baby is different. Your baby is having a lot for his age. Lucas only just manages 6 oz bottles and he's 16 weeks. Maybe he is sicking up the extra milk that he doesnt need and his tummy is overfilling? Is it cottage cheese consistency that comes back or pure milk? Babies will always sick back the milk they dont need. Just a thought?

It appears to be a mixture... he usually pukes the milky stuff back up quite soon after hes been fed if he does that is... the sick comes in the 3 - 4 hours between and it is like cottage cheese.
He does have a lot which i was concerened about but he was draining all of his 4oz and 5oz bottles and sometimes having more than 5 or 6 in 24 hours. A lot of other mums on here said it was quite normal for him to be taking this if hes draining bottles.

 

[Alisha1985]

As it's SMA, I'd definitely suggest trying a different brand. There seem to be quite a few LO's out there that it doesn't suit! C&G and Aptamil are the ones that most of us seem to get on better with, so I'd suggest trying one of those. Bear in mind that it will take a few days to work through his system and get a true idea of there is an improvement - although you'll probably have an idea within a couple of feeds.

It is possibly that your baby is just a bit sicky, or may have reflux. Both of these can be improved by various methods - comfort formula or gaviscon being the main ones - I wouldn't suggest trying either without GP or HV advice though.

It is also worth considering anything else that might be causing the problem. My LO always had niggly bits of wind left behind, and sometimes I think he had a bit more than he needed too. I also found that he was wayyy more sicky with room temperature bottles - if I made them quite warm it stayed down a lot better. You might find that just doing things a little differently with these sorts of things can make quite a difference.

Try not to worry though, there's always a way to improve these things

What is Reflux? I do warm all of his bottles.. hmmm i wish they could talk to let you know what they wanted

Nicsta, his poo's do seem quite thick... gosh its all confusing!!

 

[blahblahblah]

Reflux is when the valve on the stomach lets the contents back up (more so than the tiny bit when winding). A lot of babies have it, and mostly it isn't a problem. Occasionally it's bad enough to cause other problems like slow weight gain, and if HV/GP think it's bad enough it can need treatments such as the ones I mentioned.

Did you manage to get hold of HV? I definitely think you should have a chat about it, and as it's making LO grumpy, the sooner the better!

 

[MaisieJune]

I have a 3 week old and he takes 6ozs sometimes but more often just 5ozs every 2-3 hours. I'm using the sma milk for hungrier babies hoping he would go for longer but he doesn't! I know this is alot for him but my health visitor says it's fine and he's putting on weight excellent. To begin with he was sick a few times but was told that was down to him bringing up mucus from the birth, then he had quite bad constipation for about 5 days but that's gone now. He is a very windy baby and sometimes spends a long time grunting from discomfort but I asked health visitor about changing his milk and she said it's not a good idea, his body has to get used to it and changing would just cause more problems. I'm just seeing how he goes then will ask again if problems don't subside.

 

[Alisha1985]

Reflux is when the valve on the stomach lets the contents back up (more so than the tiny bit when winding). A lot of babies have it, and mostly it isn't a problem. Occasionally it's bad enough to cause other problems like slow weight gain, and if HV/GP think it's bad enough it can need treatments such as the ones I mentioned.

Did you manage to get hold of HV? I definitely think you should have a chat about it, and as it's making LO grumpy, the sooner the better!

Yeah its all sorted now thankyou

 

[Alisha1985]

I have a 3 week old and he takes 6ozs sometimes but more often just 5ozs every 2-3 hours. I'm using the sma milk for hungrier babies hoping he would go for longer but he doesn't! I know this is alot for him but my health visitor says it's fine and he's putting on weight excellent. To begin with he was sick a few times but was told that was down to him bringing up mucus from the birth, then he had quite bad constipation for about 5 days but that's gone now. He is a very windy baby and sometimes spends a long time grunting from discomfort but I asked health visitor about changing his milk and she said it's not a good idea, his body has to get used to it and changing would just cause more problems. I'm just seeing how he goes then will ask again if problems don't subside.

Thanks

Ive decided to keep him on the SMA normal now. My reasons for this are here :- https://www.babyandbump.com/baby-club/332625-am-feeding-him-too-much.html

 

[shayandbump]

Amy struggled with SMA for the first few months, she vomitted a lot and seemed to have a lot of gas/wind. We were going to change her to a different formula but just as we'd settled on another one to try she got better & she has no problems with it now

I'd definately suggest talking to your HV and possibly trying another brand of formula. SMA is pretty well known for causing wind.