Finding the Right Formula

In the past two weeks, Shanle was experiencing problem passing motion regularly. His stools were hard and little. At first, we thought it was due to him not taking enough fluid and so we tried to feed him more water to 'cool' him down. But we were wrong. According to Irene's gynae, the cause was the formula milk he was taking.

Shanle was taking Similac after Irene stopped breastfeeding. The richness in iron could have been too heaty for our baby and led to constipation. Our gynae was kind and gave us a free tin of Frisovom, a soya-based formula milk specially made for vomitting, constipation and colicky infants. The change of milk worked wonders and Shanle made a big poo the day he took Frisovom. All was fine except that the new formula milk does not dissolve easily in water. After every feed, we will find lumps of milk powder at the bottom of the bottle. The milk will also thicken during the feed making Shanle uncomfortable.

As Frisovom is a specialty formula, we thought it may be better to switch back for 'normal' milk after his constipation has eased. So we fed him Similac again yesterday (we still have a small inventory of Similac and it will be a waste to throw them away). We were worried whether Shanle might not want Similac anymore as Frisovom was more fragrant. But he took Similac without any resistance. It was fine during the day. But for the three feeds in the night, Shanle was very unsettled and cried non-stop shortly after every feed. He did not pass any motion for 24 hours and I gathered he must be constipated and probably feeling painful.

After discussing with Irene, we switched back to Frisovom this morning and Shanle managed to pass some motion shortly after the second feed. Irene noticed that the first pile of stools were quite hard and the subsequently stools were normal. I guessed our gynae was right about the formula and we will stick to Frisovom from now on.