How Do You Know If You Need To Change Your Baby’s Formula
How do you know if you need to change your baby’s formula
Baby feeding requires observation, proactivity, and focus. As a parent, you have to be knowledgeable and observant enough to pick up patterns, signs, and signals. You also have to be proactive enough to take action when you notice these signs. Babies differ from each other, and so do formulas. Are you one of those that ask, How do you know if you need to change your baby’s formula
Formulas are constituted based on past observations of nutrients that are beneficial to the baby. Despite that, there is no iron clad rule for making baby formulas. The baby formula differs based on allergies, physiology (as dictated by environmental differences), comfort, similitude to regular breast milk, and even market forces.
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In some cases, the makers’ preferences even come into play when deciding the final components of specific feeding formulas.
Due to all of these distinct factors, it is necessary for a parent to be sensitive enough to notice when a formula is the best fit for a baby or not. It is also essential to know when your baby has outgrown specific formulas. However, it is not just enough to be aware of the differences.
What exactly are the signs that you need to watch out for? How do you identify that your baby needs to switch formulas? Will there be physical reactions? Will there not be? All of these questions will be answered in the subsequent paragraphs.
Signs that you need to change your baby’s formula
There are different signs you’ll find in your baby when a change in formula becomes pertinent. Just so you don’t mistake these signs for random baby tantrums or sickness symptoms, we will examine some of the major ones below.
When your baby experiences a violent rash outbreak, there are quite many factors that trigger rashes in babies.
However, an incompatible feeding formula is one of the major triggers. If you notice that your baby starts to develop rashes all over their body (especially after introducing a new formula), it is time to switch to a new brand.
When the baby’s immune system considers the constituents of a feed incompatible or foreign, the most common body reaction is rashes.
When your baby suddenly develops severe diarrhea
Even grown-ups consider this as a rule of thumb; diarrhea is caused by ingesting food or water that is contaminated or incompatible with intestinal physiology. The same principles apply to baby feeding.
Whenever your baby consumes a food substance that the intestine is not convenient with, diarrhea sets in. Your baby begins to excrete watery feces with intensity.
This leads to many other complications like diaper rashes, paleness, loss of body food, and in extreme cases, fainting. When you notice diarrhea in your baby, the first step is to check and change the kind of formula you feed them.
When your baby vomits frequently
This sign is closely associated with diarrhea. In some babies, their bodies respond to digestive irritation by forceful expulsion of the food through their mouths and noses. Please, do not confuse things; the kind of vomiting being referred to here is the kind that occurs violently.
In this case, the pain is almost palpable; you can tell physically that your baby is hurting. Just like in the case of diarrhea, vomiting leads to a myriad of other problems.
Examples of these other complications include paleness, nutrient deficiency diseases, loss of body fluid, fainting, etcetera. As a parent, whenever you notice indiscriminate and painful vomiting in your baby, you should first check and change the kind of formula you feed them.
If your baby experiences trouble sleeping
This sign is all encompassing. Since sleep and feeding are interconnected and are directly linked to a baby’s growth, a defect in one would tell on the other. You have to be careful here; inability to sleep is not exclusively caused by a need to switch formulas.
However, in many instances where your baby displays irregular sleeping patterns, you may need to switch the baby’s formula.
In some instances where the disturbance is not severe enough to trigger vomiting or diarrhea, it could lead to very mild disturbances in the baby’s intestine. The baby may experience pain in their tummies from time to time when they are supposed to sleep.
On another note, babies find it hard to sleep when they have rashes. Summarily, you should be careful enough to distinguish when your baby’s lack of sleep is due to wrong feed or some other thing.
And when you notice a pattern of causes that lead to feeding complications, make sure to change the baby’s formula.
When your baby gets increasingly irritated after eating
It is natural for the baby to act all fussy. Sometimes, it is just due to heat or slight discomfort in positioning. However, if you have noticed that your baby gets easily irritated after eating, you may need to switch the baby’s formula.
On a similar note, if your baby cries after or during every meal, you should change the formula.
After that, you should observe to see if there are any significant changes. Again, if that happens, you undoubtedly need to switch the formula.
When your baby wheezes after every meal
Wheezing happens as a result of many things; however, if your baby displays a repeated pattern of wheezing (or more complicated breathing difficulty) after eating, you may need to switch formulas.
After you do, you should observe the baby’s reaction after two to three meals of the new formula. If the wheezing stops, then you need to switch the formula permanently.
However, if that is not the case, do not rush to a conclusion; it may be formula issues, it may be something else. A doctor would be able to give you the right recommendations.
When your baby is constantly fatigued and tired
This is an obvious sign that you need to switch formulas. It is especially pertinent that you switch if your baby displays a fatigue pattern after feeding. For clarity, think about how the signs discussed above are related to fatigue.
For example, it is obvious that your baby would get tired from excessive vomiting or diarrhea.
On another note, the wrong baby–feed match naturally induces tiredness. Food is supposed to give energy, isn’t it? When a formula does otherwise, it is a clear sign that you need to change it.
When your baby’s allergies kick in
Allergies are obvious red flags. Any formula capable of triggering your baby’s allergies should be avoided. You should, however, take note of the particular allergen and remember to look out for it in subsequent formula purchases. You don’t want your baby suffering avoidable inconvenience, do you?
When you notice a pattern of an excessive gas release
It is natural and healthy for your baby to release gases through farts (and sometimes belching). As you may have known, however, too much of anything is an indicator of anomaly.
Therefore, when you notice a pattern of excessive belching or farting in your baby, especially after feeding, it is a clear indicator that you need to switch the baby’s formula.
When to change the baby’s formula to the next stage
Everyone expects a baby to develop (at least, as evidence of proper feeding). Parents need to notice and step up their feeding game to match the baby’s new nutritional and energy requirements when this happens. However, there are is no stringent rule that applies to all babies. Due to this factor, let’s examine the indicators you need to switch up your baby formula to the next stage.
Your baby becomes hungrier than usual
Whenever you notice that your baby begins to show signs of dissatisfaction, especially with the usual quantity of food that he eats. It would be best if you moved up to the next stage. Mind you; the next stage doesn’t necessarily mean more food. In the baby formula, the stages are indicated by the extent of compositional balance.
Most significantly, protein balance. By the time your baby outgrows a particular formula stage, they get hungry at shorter time stretches.
Then, you already know that you need to change the nutrient proportion to one that makes up for the baby’s energy usage.
When you notice your baby becoming more active
Naturally, babies gain more control over their motor functions as they grow up. It is quite easy for parents to detect these changes. When your baby starts to exhibit more tendencies of independent movement, it is an excellent growth indicator.
However, you don’t need to wait for significant changes. Babies don’t make sudden leaps at growth. Even with an extremely rapid growth rate, there are still mechanisms that regulate such development.
It would help if you started formula transitioning as soon as you noticed minor changes. By the time those little changes manifest in baby growth, it would be just in synch with the new formula stages.
The rule of age bracket
Naturally, your baby’s age (in months or years) is proportional to how much that baby has grown. Based on different observations, professionals have come up with an age bracket grouping for baby formulas.
It is said that a baby within the ages of 0-12 months can still feed on stage 1 formula. Ideally, you should transition from stage 1 to stage 2 formulas when your baby is 6 months. However, since not all babies are the same, not all babies can adapt to successfully transitioning at that age.
For some, it takes a longer period to transition. Essentially (and by implication), your baby should have successfully transitioned from stage 1 formula to stage 2 formulas by the time they are 13 months of age.
Differences between Stage 1 and Stage 2 formula milk
Just as explained above, as a baby grows, so do the baby’s appetite and energy requirements. This singular fact marks the difference between the first and second stages of formula milk. Stage 2 formula milk has no distinct difference in nutritional value from stage 1 formula milk.
The difference between these two formula stages is marked solely by the amount of energy they give to the baby. Essentially, a hungrier and more active babe should ideally be given the stage two formula milk.
Do you remember where we identified stages 1 from 2 with the difference in compositional balance? That is precisely the trick to the energy disparity. Stage 2 formula milk products are composed of more energy giving nutrients and more protein. The implication is that you don’t necessarily need to change from stage 1 to stage 2 so long the baby doesn’t need more energy.
However, that rarely happens. A baby grows, and the baby needs more energy to sustain its activity. Therefore, you have to switch at one point or the other.
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How to go about Changing from One stage to another
If by chance, your baby needs to transition from one stage to another – especially when the baby nears the stage of purees – you should take note not to do it abruptly. Ideally, you don’t just change stages or formula type, you transition. You begin by gradually introducing your baby to the new composition.
Then, you do it little by little and observe how the baby’s body reacts to the new introduction.
This gives the body enough time to acclimatize to the new input and the new balance.
Then, the immune system quickly scans through (in the case of a new formula) and lets you know If the baby could take the formula or not. That way, you can control the situation if the new introduction threatens the baby’s health.
Conclusion
There are various types of formula milk on the market today. As parents, the number one thing you should always look out for is your baby’s safety. To ascertain that, you need to be sure that the brand follows the procedures of the local regulatory body in charge.
You could confirm this by looking out for approval signs of market regulatory structures in healthcare. Remember, no two babies are the same. Therefore, you have to identify what works for your baby and what doesn’t work.