Flavouring baby milk? Post Reply

[supermummy]

Can anyone suggest 'healthy' ways to flavour my baby's formula? Normally I would not consider this but he's a bit different..he has a few feeding problems and is refusing the bottle. We are desperate to encourage him to feed normally. He happily takes calpol as he loves it so am convinced he can do it if he really wants to. I wondered about nesquik but it is so sweet. He is 18 weeks so only a few weeks from solids anyway.

[GES77]

All of my children have had ottle feeding issues and all for a variety of reasons. Personally, I wouldn't flavour the milk, but instead try to get to the root cause.

As a suggestion have you tried:

Changing the teat size and trying other types of bottle?
Changing the formula (one of mine much preferred sma to aptimil, which I think may be sweeter)? Obviously give this at least a few days to notice any change.
My children had terrible silent reflux which was at its worst from around 16 weeks - essentially it presented itself as bottle refusal, arching, turn head from bottle, wind that we just couldn't get up. They were all given ranitadine (an antacid) which made a huge difference. One of the children then moved to a dairy free prescription formula (neocate) and took his first full feed on the first bottle!
If wind could be a problem, try infacol.
With my third, I found I had to let him suck on a dummy whilst winding him to get the burp up.

I am sure you could add nesquik, but I would be doubtful that it is a sweeter taste he wants - more likely that he is uncomfortable so you need to explore some changes.

I hope things start to improve - its an exhausting time

[emsken]

Our dietician recommended either vanilla extract (tiny bit-too muh will make it bitter) or nesquick milkshake powder which actually has a lot of vitamins etc in!

[coolmum]

I disagree with flavouring it. As the above poster said we look at other things.

[lily36]

I was desperate to have my baby ono the bottle, and it took us more than 2 months and 7 different types of bottles to eventually have him drink from a bottle (he prefers the NUK teats, because they are soft and flexible). So you may want to try more brands until you find the one he favours.

Having said that, it takes what it takes to have baby and parents happy, and if for you this is flavouring the milk, then why not ? but you may want to speak with a health visitor/GP/paediatrician first because feeding your baby is a serious thing !

[supermummy]

Thanks all, we have tried some of these but will continue to experiment. Have every bottle/ teat under the sun! He is on reflux meds (domperidone and omeprozole) to try and eliminate that. He has been in and out of hospital and now that we are home, it seems we pretty much have to fend for ourself in terms of specialist advice. He is mainly fed by ng tube but we're meant to be improving his bottle feeding or he'll end up with gastrostomy. I think he needs a real incentive ie taste or hunger (but would rather not do the full on hunger/wean route yet). We'll keep trying!

[Pod]

Dear Supermummy I hear your desperation in wanting to get the milk in especially if you have been through NG Tube feeding too and want to try and normalise feeding and prevent a gastrostomyt ( I have worked with toddlers and older children who have been along the route you are experiencing and ended up with pegs etc so I understand how desperate it can be and how you would do anything to get milk feeds happening) but what about considering
rather than using something like Nesquick - instead soaking rusks (Plum Baby do a spelt rusk that is easier to digest than wheat and is sweetened with Apple juice) you could soak one in the milk and turn it to a cream consistency before adding it to the feed - this would increase calories, thicken the milk to keep reflux down and also offer some sweetness and change to the milk flavour or consistency - you might need a faster flowing teat though? But check with your HV or childs consultant first if they think it would be suitable given only 18weeks - although many babies have rusks from earlier on.

[supermummy]

Thanks pod. Will try that too, sounds a healthier option though I'm prepared to break a few rules to get him drinking! You're quite right, am desperate to avoid the peg. Out of curiosity, we just tried banana nesquik with aptamil... He just managed 50 ml quite calmly compared to his usual squirming and stopping at 10/20ml! I think there is hope he can do it!

[Robyn]

FF and BF milk is incredibly sweet as it is so you definitely should be flavouring it with something else.

He should be happy to drink it as it is, so there definitely seems to be another issue. As for the rusks idea, I'd step away from that too but that's because rusks are full of sweetners too. If your LO is having gastric issues then all these ideas are only going to make him worse.

See your GP and your HV, it may be a hassle but keeping baby on milk at 18wks is really important, they're still so small and trying to get the basics sorted is a must x

[Robyn]

*SHOULDN'T be flavoured

(didn't know how to edit)