Throwing up Neocate?

Hi and welcome!

There can be 2 reasons why this is happening. My son was also a silent refluxer (did not spit, only threw up into his throat and glerped/swallowed it back down) BUT when we first started Neocate, he threw up!

here’s why:

1) Neocate is SO thin! I know breastmilk is too, but Neocate is also just designed differently. It’s probably not sticking to him like BM did, but that doesn’t mean it won’t work and heal him! He just needs time. Trust me on this!

2) It is HIGHLY recommended to do a SLOW transition when you go to an Elemental formula. By that I mean 1-2oz of Neocate added to a bottle of pumped BM, like Erica suggested. It is not a tasty formula and again, it is made up TOTALLY different than anything else his body is used to and at first can cause GI upset if it’s given too quickly. But it will do its job once he is fully on Neocate!

jilly782008-10-23 07:58:58

Hi there,

Landen was only nursed the first few weeks mainly b/c I take a lot of medications (namely a class D seizure medication) that I didn’t feel comfortable using while nursing and I could only be off the med for so long after delivery. Also, looking at Landen today, I’m not sure how well he would have even done on TED (this is just my opinion of Landen) since he is intolerant to rice, pork, banana, tomato, dairy, soy. I mean, rice is supposed to be a “safe” food and he certainly cannot have it without GI issues!! I think Landen would have been one that would have ended up on Neocate anyway, however we have MANY successful TED mama’s here who can essentially make their breastmilk like Neocate. You might try PMing ‘erinntx’ or b’smom….and gosh I know there are more, I am drawing blanks right now, maybe they can give you a few ideas to get started. 🙂

jilly782008-10-23 12:45:24

Oh you poor thing! I wish I could begin to tell you which foods to drop. It can be very confusing. We have a user here ‘PaulaB’ and her son was also intolerant to some of the ‘safe’ TED foods….even turkey!! Tricky tricky! It can take MUCH patience in figuring out and I commend all of you moms that go through with it!!! BFing is so good for refux babies, but I also understand how some just have to be on Neocate too. HUGE hugs!

Hi there,

I’m so sorry to hear about your situation! I also did a very limited diet in order to continue breastfeeding and although it was extremely difficult at first, it was well worth it. My cousin has a baby who is 9 mos old and she’s been on a dairy/soy/peanut/fish/gluten/egg and i can’t remember what else free diet because of blood in the stools. It took a loooong time for the blood to completely disappear for her son (I think maybe 3-5 months on the diet?– I’ll find out). Strangely, he wasn’t a spitter upper, wasn’t fussy, but the blood in the stools was a HUGE concern, obviously. I will call her and get the details but it sounds familiar. I think it might take a while for the internal bleeding to stop even once the offending foods are out..? For us, when I took out the final offending food– gluten– (we didn’t have blood but he couldn’t sleep and would wake up ever hour and half for 18 mos straight)– when we took that out, although there was an immediate change within a week or so, it really was about six months of consistently doing the new diet — over that time I saw a true turn around. I know that sounds terrible, but sometimes it’s more of a long term thing. Granted, we didnt’ have blood like you, so it’s different in a lot of ways. I just think it’s good to hear about all these other stories to know what might be possible in a situation. I’ll try to get back with my cousins’ timeline for blood/diet changes. She has not tried formula so I don’t know about that angle.

Michelle,

I’m so sorry to hear about the sleeping! I can honestly say, I had only two 4 hour stretches of sleep in the first 18 months. It was insane. I wasn’t functioning well. I was mostly a stay-at-home-mom and he was our first/only child, so that’s what got me through. We could stay in bed until 9 am whcih we did most days because we were so exhausted from being up all night. We were often in pjs until noon. We just learned to operate more slowly and I got used to feeling less mentally there all the time. It will really help you to begin to try to slow down, which is really difficult for most people, but you have to help yourself and the baby by letting more things go when you’re not sleeping like this.

When I started sleeping again I couldn’t believe what an energy rush it felt like. Anyways, I just want to say that I’ve been there and I know it’s terrible. But eventually it will get better. Sometimes it just takes having that “aha” moment, for us it was when i was so down and really ready to throw in the towel and I basically decided to give up gluten in our diets. My dh thought I was C-RAZY– but it worked wonders. I’ve recently heard of another child (friend of a friend thing) who couldn’t sleep more than an hour and half at a time until gluten was taken out of their diets. We are a very unusual reflux case, however. Most folks on this forum begin sleeping again MUCH sooner than that. And most babies on this forum begin improving and are med free by age 2– most a lot sooner. And most are off special diets by then (even way before then), too (my son is still on zegerid and a special diet and he’s four). So, there is a lot of hope for you. I also remember telling my husband nearly once a day that i had a new idea as to what was the cause of our problems. I was always hatching a new plan, and it sort of kept me hopeful, exactly like what you’re saying with feeling like the answer is just around the corner. Keep us posted and I’ll try to reach my cousin– she’s not on this forum– but she sounds very similar to your situation. hang in there!