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!

[Bubs]

We've had simnilar issues with my daughter, managed to avoid an ng by switching to neocate from breastmilk (literally syringing the neocate into her at times) as after all the usual reflux meds at the highest doeses things were still bad. Scopes (endoscopy and colonoscopy) eventually showed she was inflamed internally, likely from non-ige (so non immediate) food allergy. But she did have blood in her stools which alerted us to this.

Lots of friends we've made through the hospital do flavour their children's milk to get them drinking (many were / are ng tube or peg fed), it's an extraordinary situation which requires different measures and approaches to those normally adopted.

Has your paediatrician looked into switching milks or does s/he believe it's pure aversion from reflux ? Our guy reckons a large percentage of reflux has some kind of allergy at it's root cause. Obvs not all, and the only way of knowing is to eliminate and reintroduce (stool / blood / skin prick tests simply dont work for non-ige allergies, whatever you may hear). This is clearly something that should only really be done under paediatric / dietician control (eliminating foods) - I'd ask some more questions of your paed. I do also have friends whose children do 'just' have severe oral aversion after horrendous reflux / sore little throats from it all too. So that could very well be the case.

But to answer your question, nesquick seems a preferred route for friends.

Please PM me if you'd like to chat further, I have friends who could offer advice through this scary & confusing time.

[supermummy]

Thanks bubs. To be honest we've had virtually no medical help since coming out of hospital recently. Our first paeds appt is end July and our hospital paeds follow up is September! We're just getting to know a new gp too so I feel as though there is no one taking any interest in his case... We're looking to go privately now. My gut feel is he won't feed as he has either become lazy and has learnt that milk arrives down the NG or he has aversion due to reflux/teething pain. It's hard to know which.

I would be interested to hear how your friends got on. Will pm you too.

[Medway]

I have no practical advice other than to say I feel for you - your situation sounds very difficult and even in the absense of good medical follow up you are being practical in finding a solution...and calm in the process! I know it's not strictly relevant but I take omeprazole daily because of an illness that affects the lining of my stomach - when it is really hurting sweetened milk (my preference is chocolate) is exactly what helps. Oh and finally - this posts serves as a great reminder to reserve judgement (a couple of posts about offer postive support or advice just a straightforward judgemental remark).

[supergirl]

Hi Supermummy

I have flavoured my children milk from the age of 10 months old because I wanted to (agreed by my paediatrician in paris) thicken the milk and to add nutrients/vitamins. I chose a chocolate flavour because ultimately I wanted my children to drink hot chocolate in the morning (as being part french).

I agree with you Nesquick is way too sweet for an 18 weeks old. If you go on www.frenchclick.co.uk or www.chanteroy-online.com you will find a lot of cereals flavoured or not to add to the milk organised by age so for ex: from 4 months, from 12 months and so on. I have switched to Nesquick when my youngest turned 2yrs (so my oldest was 3.5 yrs).

Note: that what they say on the box is too much, 1 spoonfull is plenty.

Good luck, hope your baby will soon take the bottle. Sx

[supergirl]

PS: these are online supermarket specialised in french products and french brands.

[Bubs]

They look great supergirl, thank you ! It's the ones under the 'baby cereal' section ?

[supergirl]

Yep!