Photo credits to: Jomphong of freedigitalphotos.net
Pooping is a normal activity for all human beings, even for
babies. Although their small tummies can only accommodate a limited amount of
milk, you can still be left wondering how they can poop that much. Our little
babet was pooping normally since she was a breastfed baby. But the moment her
diaper showed a bloody poop (the entire poop in the diaper was bloody red in
color and not just poop with streaks of blood), we had to go to the doctor’s
clinic right away to find out what was wrong. Blood in infant stool is definitely
not normal and needs immediate attention.
We brought the soiled diaper with us, only to find out later
that it won’t have the same appearance as when we first saw it. It appeared to
be dark brown (or the color of blood that has dried up) instead of bloody red
when we showed it to the doctor since the contents have already been absorbed
in the diaper. The baby showed no signs of discomfort or pain. It was as if she
was pooping normally. She was active, drinking lots of breast milk, and was generally
happy. And because the doctor wanted to be sure, he ordered a fecalysis as well
as for the laboratory to conduct an occult (hidden) blood test on the stool. Catching
stool from an infant is definitely challenging. We used a urine collector to
make it a bit easier. The stool that we collected was submitted to the
laboratory. Late that night, we decided to have our little babet admitted to
the hospital.
To cut to the chase, our baby was diagnosed with cow’s milk
protein allergy. This left us baffled because she wasn’t on cow’s milk. She was
being breastfed. She was only formula-fed on two occasions and those were
several weeks ago already. It turns out that for breastfed babies, cow’s milk was
coming from what the mother was eating. Eventually, I was put on a total
elimination diet for dairy products. This meant that I should not eat any
cheese, drink or consume products with milk, butter, and other products that contain
cow’s milk. This also meant that I had to read the ingredients of all food
products that I intend to eat. It was undeniably hard and it was very
frustrating. We were told that it would take about 2-3 weeks for the blood to
disappear, provided that the total elimination diet was observed. In our case,
there was still blood after almost a month. We decided to switch to formula
milk instead and tried soy milk.
There was an immediate change in our baby’s stool just after
one day. We were able to try both Isomil Advance and S26 Soy Gold. Blood was no
longer present. However, she was having difficulty with pooping. She would cry
in pain and turn red. Her poop became hard and often came out as small balls or
was very long (for an infant). It was heartbreaking having to witness her
pooping because she was definitely in pain. We tried giving her water in
between feeds as well as adding more water to her milk. But it didn’t improve
the situation. Later on there were little streaks of blood in her stool,
probably because her anus became irritated with the painful pooping. After
visiting the doctor once again, he recommended that we switch to NAN HW. But he
also told us that the best milk would be Nutramigen. We decided to switch to
Nutramigen.
It
took a few days before our baby was able to pass stool. But when she did, we
were relieved because it had the right consistency. The color of the stool was
more on the greener side than on the tan or light brown side. The milk also
tasted like rust/iron. No wonder our baby’s face turned sour when we first gave
it to her. But she seemed okay with the taste later on. She was pooping fine
and there was no pain. The only painful thing was the cost of Nutramigen –
Php907.00 (as of the time of writing) for only a 400g can. Oh my!
A
400g can of Nutramigen only lasted for three days. It was really very expensive
and difficult to find since you can only purchase it in selected Mercury Drug
stores. Aside from Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy, our baby also has several skin
allergies. Among the comments that we found online have varied statements as to
when the allergies or rashes went away after they switched to Nutramigen. Some
said immediately, others in 2 months. Because we weren’t seeing any improvements
on the skin yet and because it was really expensive, we decided once again to
switch to NAN HW. It is still too early for us to state whether Nutramigen did
not help clear up her skin allergies/rashes since we have only tried it for a
few days.
Good
thing NAN HW costs less than Nutramigen. As of the time of writing, a 400g can
costs Php521.20, an 800g can costs Php1,031.00, and a 1.4kg box costs
Php1,650.00. She responded well to the milk, as shown in her poop. It has the
same consistency with Nutramigen and is also more of a darker green in color. There
were, however, a few instances where her poop was greenish black in color. Her
skin allergies/rashes have somehow cleared after a few days of using NAN HW. But
we cannot solely say or conclude that this was because of the milk since we
also applied another product on her skin (lotion) on the same day that we
switched to NAN HW. The important thing is that she seems to be getting better.
So
far things are looking bright after 10 days of using NAN HW and after applying
the skin lotion only when rashes start to appear. For those who are looking for
any feedback on switching from Nutramigen to NAN HW, we hope this post can help
you. I’ll update this post when there are new developments. But again, it may
be too early for us to tell. We are hoping and praying that everything will be
okay and that our little babet will finally have smooth baby skin.
