Ok, how to start Neocate??

Valerie – wow, that is great you are getting the appointments soon. They should provide some answers! As per the IV sedation, that is what Matthew had. They did the gas mask before, so he felt nothing and no poking pain for him!! Hopefully it will be fine… the pH probe is important… do you have some mittens that you can put in her hands?? Ask the nurses about it.

YOu can make up whatever amount of Neocate you want… just divide by 2. Matthew did not do well on prepared formula… ie i could not prepare it in advance because it made him gassy… so i would just make 4 ounces bottles. He has never taken more than 4ounces anyway LOL.

I would avoid the cereal if possible – but you are the mommy and you have to find out what worked. We added it for calories for Matthew and he did fine.

Matthew would not take it mixed in – but i would just try it straight!! See what happens! We added sugar to Matthew’s for a while… other people did add splenda – the packets are not recommended until they are older

Will be away for a few weeks…. but will try to check on you after the procedures – good luck and do what you have to do to get through this time – it gets better!

i had to mix with alimentum very slowlyyy

1 0z neocate the rest alimentum

few bottles later:

2oz neocate rest alimentum.

etc…..
if you do rice- get beechnut brand- its soy free. i do rice bc neocate is so thin and Trace wil choke on it.

There’s something called STEVIA Liquid Extract. It’s a natural herbal sweetner. I used it to sweeten tea. It’s very sweet, but it’s not an artificial sweetner. The bottle says it’s hypoallegenic; contains no sugar, salt, starch, yeast, wheat, gluten, corn, soy, milk, egg, or preservatives. A few drops sweetens a whole 8 ounce glass of tea, so you don’t need to use much at all.

I have no idea if this is safe for babies, but it’s worth asking her doctor about. Maybe it would make the Neocate more palatable for her.

I don;t know about the sweetness thing – really depends on the baby i guess? Matthew was on Neocate with sugar and with a really yummy cereal for months and now all he wants is salt – hates sweets!!

There is a chart somewhere that goes through the stages of how babies’ tastes change… it is pretty good – i will try and post it under separate section…. there are supposedly windows for introducing new things

well organic should be milk and soy free too i think. i was just thiking to stay away from gerber brands.

I think the Gerber Organic still has soy in it. Earth’s Best Organic does not contain any soy like Beechnut and I believe Healthy times doesn’t contain soy as well so it would be the same as using Beechnut.