When Change Is Not Always Good
Most special needs parents will be able to relate to me when I say that change is not always good when it comes to our children. That’s because a simple change in their routine and the few food groups that they like could lead to them eventually disliking those things altogether. Worse, it could even spell distress for some kids.
When Change Is Not Always Good
One good example was when Lactum recently changed its milk formulation, apparently to lessen the amount of sugar that it contains. I think they meant well in the sense that they want their product to be healthier for children. However, because of that, Miguel suddenly just stopped drinking Lactum.
When I didn’t know yet that Lactum changed their milk formulation, I tried it for myself but couldn’t figure out what was wrong because I had no idea what it tasted like before. Miguel has been drinking Lactum since he turned three years old or about a year ago so something was definitely not right for him to suddenly have an aversion to it.
Miguel eating powdered milk
We tried Bear Brand, another milk brand that Miguel likes to eat. Yes, you read that right, Miguel loves to eat Bear Brand milk powder. We tried to substitute it for Lactum but he still wouldn’t drink from his bottle. I think he hated the new taste of Lactum so much that he wouldn’t absolutely drink milk anymore, even if we showed him that it was Bear Brand. And so right there and then, Miguel bid goodbye to his bottle-feeding days.
Curious if Lactum did something to their milk, we searched Facebook for answers. That’s when we saw a lot of angry posts from parents ranting about their kids not wanting to drink milk anymore because they hated the new taste of Lactum so much.
Apparently, Lactum changed its formulation without giving prior advice or announcement about it. It was definitely a bad move because it caught a lot of parents by surprise, including us.
I wanted more answers so I contacted Lactum via Facebook Messenger and here is a summary of their reply, actually a scooping guide:
For the first two days, mix one (1) scoop of the new Lactum formulation and three (3) scoops of the old Lactum formulation
Next two days, mix two (2) scoops of the new Lactum formulation and two (2) scoops of the old Lactum formulation.
Next two days, mix three (3) scoops of the new Lactum formulation and one (1) scoop of the old Lactum formulation.
On the succeeding days, make four (4) scoops of the new Lactum formulation.
It actually makes sense because you are conditioning your child’s taste buds to the new taste of Lactum. The only problem is that parents don’t know where to find or buy the Lactum with the old formulation.
A good point raised by one parent is that if stores will even bother to label Lactum boxes with the old and the new formulation. I just wish that Lactum anticipated that such chaos would happen so they should've told parents to stock up on the old milk formulations.
Then again, I think Lactum chose to remain silent because they were avoiding making noise about it so as not to highlight the possible issue. In the end, the brouhaha could've been prevented through good judgment.
Anyway, we’ve moved on and switched to Nido 3+ instead. Miguel still doesn’t want to drink it when we tried it for the last time but he loves to eat Nido 3+ in powder form.
Do you have a similar experience with your child with regard to change? Feel free to share them in the comment section below.