> Just wanted to throw something out there for your opinion. What do you all
>think about feeding your milk allergic infant a hypoallergenic Infant
>formula such as "Enfalac Nutramigen". I used this formula upon the advice of
>my allergist.

My son Matthew exhibited milk allergy symptoms (bloody stool and
reflux) at an early age, from milk in my diet passed through my
breastmilk.  We beileve he was also allergic to soy and peanuts, and
maybe peas.  While I was sorting things out and cleaning out my diet we
gave Matthew Alimentum for about 1/3 of his feedings.  Since that
seemed to reduce his symptoms, we concluded that the problem was
something (things) in my diet and continued to work to figure out what
I needed to remove from my diet.

Anyhow, his doctors said that some percentage (I have 25% in my mind,
but I'm not sure) of milk-allergic children do react to the casein
hydrolysate formulas, and there are even more hypoallergenic formulas
available by special order.  But they seemed to think it was perfectly
safe for him if he didn't react to it.

We used Alimentum instead of Nutramigen since the Nutramigen is sweetened
with corn syrup, and I wanted to avoid the corn as well as it is also a
common allergen.  (Alimentum is sweetened with cane sugar.)

fwiw, Matthew is now 14 months old, and seems to be outgrowing some of
his allergies!  I am still nursing him, and successfully reintroduced
peas, soy and then milk into my diet without causing any symptoms in
him.  Just last week we introduced soy milk to him without any problem.
(I'm staying off the peanuts until he's weaned, whenever that will be,
and he's not getting any directly anytime in the forseeable future -- I'm
terrified of peanut allergies.)

Compared to the other stories I've read here, we were lucky because
Matthew had blood in his stool, which was quickly recognized as a sign
of milk allergy, and even his pediatrician realized that he could be
reacting to milk products in my diet.  I was also lucky because a good
friend recognized Matthew's crying patterns as a possible sign of
reflux even though Matthew never spit up.  (He "just" got heartburn and
cried and cried and cried.)  They sent us to a gastroenterologist for
the bloody stool who also recognized that the reflux was likely a
result of his allergies.  So we've had pretty good medical stories.
(We live near Boston, and I guess we really do get pretty good health
care out here, comparatively speaking.)

--Robyn