Reaction to DHA/ARA??

Hi All,

I’m wondering if I could trial Dagney on dairy, and was hoping for some input from more of you more knowledgable people!

Dagney’s story:

At 3 weeks we moved her from Enfamil Lipil to Gentlease Lipil, she was always gassy & arching, the Gentlease didn’t help for long, so at about 4 weeks we moved her to Nutramigen Lipil. She had a bit of diarrhea right when she moved from Gentlease to Nutramigen, which the pedi said was from the Gentlease b/c it takes about 2 days for whatever that goes in to come back out. The Nutramigen seemed to do the trick for about 1 month or so. Around 7-8 weeks she started spitting up, then around 8-9 began the arching again, along with gurggling, making noises like she was trying to slear her throat, choking, etc. So at 9 weeks she was diagnosed with reflux and put on Zantac–that didn’t do anything, it actually made her worse. So at about 10-11 weeks she was put on Prevacid, first 7.5mg/day, then 15 mg/day. At 3.5 months we visited the GI, who told us to split the dose to 7.5mg 2x/day and add rice cereal to the Nutramigen that she was on. That didn’t really do anything for any of the symptoms. The GI advised that if after 5 days she didn’t improve, to put her on the Neocate DHA/ARA formula. She never really had bad diarrhea on the Nutramigen, and the GI did a test of her poop and did not find blood in it. She was still having symptoms, we got the GI to push her to 7.5 mg 3x/day, but it didn’t help her compeltely still, but we knew she wouldn’t go any higher. Finally at just over 4 months, we got our pediatrician to up her dose to 30mg/day in 3 doses, which immediately helped her symptoms. She still spit up, but not as bad, she was happy, and the rest of her reflux symptoms went away.

About 5 days after we got her on the right dose, she had a bad reaction to the Rotatecvirus vaccine, then she got a cold, then she started to get teeth, and then she got a tummy bug, which all affected her reflux, but she seems to be back to herself now!! All along, she was still spitting up quite a bit–there was some improvement from before, but there still was a lot.

Well, a funny thing has happened…at the same time that her tummy bug started (some diarrhea & a few projectile vomits, nothing too severe, but she was not having a good time either) we received her latest shipment of Neocate without DHA/ARA because the warehouse was out of the formula with the DHA/ARA. What I’ve noticed since she’s been on the non-dha stuff is that she hasn’t really spit up (here & there, but not much, it now seems like “normal baby” spit up) and her poop is more solid. Her poop the whole time while she’s been on the Neocate has been almost diarrhea-like, although I was having to give her a few ml’s of Mylanta each day, too, which I’ve been able to stop, so that may also play a part.

Does this sound like she had a reaction to the DHA/ARA, and now that she’s off of it she’s better? I know the Prevacid has greatly helped her reflux, and I’m not saying I want to take her off of that, but I’m wondering if the DHA/ARA was part of her problem all along. I’m wondering if she needs to be on the Neocate at all. Does this sound possible to anyone or am I just still in a bit of denial?? I should have asked the GI, but she had never heard of kids having bad reactions to the DHA/ARA, so I’m not sure if she could help with this!

If this is the case, could I try Nutramigen without Lipil, and do they sell that still? If not, is there something without DHA/ARA that I could try? I know it’s not a bad thing that she’s on Neocate, but I would really rather her be on a “regular” formula if possible. Any input on this would be greatly appreciated!