Allimentum to Neocate

[Anonymous]

addyjill Newbie Joined: 04 April 2007 Online Status: Online Posts: 1

Posted: 04 April 2007 at 2:52pm | IP Logged My grand~daughter seems to be experiencing the same symptoms many of you are talking about. Let me give you a run down of what has been going on. I certainly would appreciate any and all input. She was put on the standard formula in the hospital…I believe Infamil was first…projectile vomiting …3rd day they switched her to Similac…same thing, but also diarrhea..more than I thought was normal for an infant (as I have 3 grown children myself and 2 other grandchildren)…..they then put her on Similac Soy and the vomiting stopped…but the diarrhea continued…I asked that a stool culture be done before leaving the hospital…they said everything looked fine. I stayed with my daughter the following week and the poor baby screamed nonstop. We took her to her week checkup and told the Dr. about the sreaming and diarrhea…he said to give it some time and we started her on the gas drops…which didn’t really help. I came home a week and when I went back..oh my…her little bottom was bright red and she was extremely fussy and we were changing diapers about every 30 minutes. She had also lost weight. She weighed only 6 lbs. l l/2 oz. at birth. We took her to the Dr. and he switched her formula to Nutrimogen<sp?> and we took her back in 3 days and she had gained 4 oz…we were thrilled! She continued to have diarrhea, but it didn’t eat her little bottom raw, nor was it as often…she seemed less fussy too. Then the next week unfortunately she got that nasty stomach flu, but maintained a weight of 6 lbs. 6 oz… Unfortunately, at 6 weeks she hadn’t really gained much more and the Dr. said to just keep watching her. I brought my daughter and baby back home with me and we got a 2nd opinion from our family Dr. She tried another formula that was for colic and gassy babies…can’t remember the name of it…but it was a milk based formula and for 2 days it was hell, and she broke out with a rash and spit up alot. We then went to a pediatrician who wanted to put her on Elecare…we finally found a Drug Store that got us 1 can at $43 to try, and after 2 days she lost 4 oz. We were then admitted to the hospital for a week and various tests were run. Nothing showed up except that she had alot of fat in her stool. Forgot to mention that they switched her to Allimentum in the hospital. She gained about an oz. a day or close to that. She continued having the xplosive diarrhea though and the stomach noises were really loud, you can actually feel the formula moving through her stomach…really strange feeling…that still happens. After being released from the hopsital we continued doing weekly weight checks…she gained slowly, but unfortunately not enough to please the Pediatrician. We took her to a gastric intestinal specialist for infants and they ran some tests. Everything turned out ok. He continues seeing her on a monthly basis and we call in weekly weight checks, as he is 4 l/2 hours 1 way from home. She now weighs 8 lbs. 8 oz. at 3 l/2 months, But the past 2 weeks she only gained 3 oz. so he wanted us to try Neocate. He is giving her 2 weeks to see how she does. But, my concern is whether or not that will be enough time to see any difference. We are mixing 2 oz. Neocate to 3 oz. of Allimentum. We tried doing 2 to 2 the first day, but she hated it. She seems to being taking the 2 to 3 mixture quite well, it’s only 2 days though. The diarrhea seems to have increased though, but reading on here it sounds as if the Neocate should slow things down, not make them worse?? Anyway, I guess I want to know by those of you that have made the switch, how fast should we try to switch over to Neocate only? How long did it take before you saw any change? Did you see any changes while mixing the Allimentum with the Neocate? I really hope that something good happens within the next 2 weeks. If she doesn’t gain at least 8 oz. or more, and if the diarrhea doesn’t decreae we will be going back into the hospital for a biopsy of the small intestine and to have a feeding tube inserted…ugh. Thank you in advance for listening and any advice or help you can give. The Drs. have said they think she has malabsorption syndrome. Take Care. This post was also put on an old post , but I started a new one in hopes that it would get noticed.

[Anonymous]

I’m so sorry to hear of the troubles you are having with your dear granddaughter. My daughter has been on Neocate for 1 & 1/2 months now, and she didn’t like it at first either. We mixed it with her previous formula, as you are doing, and slowly increased the amount of Neocate each day until she was on it by itself. Even though she is taking the 2 to 3 mixture quite well, it would be good to keep increasing the amount of Neocate slowly until she is on it alone. Only then will you see if she will have any real benefit from it. This can take time though, so as long as she doesn’t have any terrible reaction to it, I would give it a good 4 week trial to see the full benefit.

I’m sorry that I can’t be much help about the diarrhea, as I didn’t experience that with my kids, but I thought perhaps your granddaughter might benefit from probiotics. Here are a couple of links about them. They may help rebuild the amount of “good” bacteria in her gut that is likely being flushed out with the diarrhea. May even help reduce the diarrhea? I’m not sure, but worth looking into. I use the BioGaia brand for my kids. They are oily drops that I add to Paige’s bottle once a day.

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=5869&a mp;KW=probiotics

http://www.webmd.com/diet/tc/Probiotics-Topic-Overview

Hope your granddaughter will be improving soon! And I hope you find a lot of help and support here. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Welcome.

Your little granddaughter has been through so much. Alana was 6pd 60z when born and I can remember how tiny she was and how vulnerable. Her poor mummy must be beside herself (but so lucky to have you).

Sorry I don’t have much advice but I wanted to say HI and I hope that the Neocate is part of the answer.

My understanding is it can take at least a month or so for the milk proteins to get out of the system and thats after you are fully on the neocate…I don’t think that 2 weeks will really give you the answer. Of course with your granddaughter not putting on weight you probably don’t have the luxury of waiting a long period.

Neocate can by itself cause very very very loose stools (like runny water) so if it was a problem before the Neocate might be contributing to it. I’m not an “expert” on it though and I am sure one of the other mums who has their little ones on it will post very soon.

What tests has she done…do they think she has reflux. Is she on any meds?

[Anonymous]

I thought Neocate was suppose to cause constipation, not diarrhea??

No she’s not on any meds. She has had alot of testing, not
sure exactly what all, but I do know she was tested Negative for Cystic
Fibrosis, and Negative for Reflux.

We have a call into the Dr. to ask about Proibiotics that one of the other ladies so kindly mentioned.

Anyone else that has switched from Allimentum to Neocate, I’d love to hear from them too. I guess misery loves company.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

youre right, neocate a lot of the time causes constipation, not diarhea.

therese, maybe youre thinking of alimentum, because THAT does cause diarhea in a lot of babies.

neocate never constipated my son though. it just causes very dark green, almost black stools, because there is less to digest.

[Anonymous]

Addy has always had a problem with loose stools…she’s been on Neocate for 8 or so months now and she never really has formed stools….not diarhea though. Loose stools are okay but diarhea is going very often and totally runny (thats what our GI told us). Addy was constipated once in her life so I know Neocate does not constipate all babies.

I hope the Neocate helps! Please keep us posted!

[Anonymous]

We went from Nutramigen to Neocate. Colton was young enough that we just switched without mixing in Nutramigen. He went thru a couple of weeks of loose stools but they went away and then it constipated him. We were able to take him off of it at 1 year old but he is still on formula. I would try and see if you can totally switch. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Well yesterday she had SEVEN diarrhea diapers at my house, from 7:30 to
5:00…ALL of those require changing of clothes, bedding and
everything……..UGH.

Today I’ve had 4 so far and it’s 2:00….not near as much in each
diaper though. I’m hoping by Mon. that we have her strictly on
Neocate.

I just purchaed $200 worth of Allimentum. Guess if she never goes back on that I’ll put it on eBay…Expires in 2009.

Her belly isn’t near as bloated and hard today. The diarrhea
still is explosive after eating though. Alot of rumbling and
gurgling of the stomach, you can literally feel it under your hands
while she’s eating.

She’s not really been as fussy in the past month though. More like a normal baby. Just so slow at gaining weight.

She’s so tiny.

Thanks for all the support.

Take Care…and have a safe and happy Easter!

[Anonymous]

I hope the Neocate helps, hopefully that will be the answer for her. It would be best for her not to have reflux, after all.

Another bub in my mums groups was very small and kept slipping back on the graph (she had no reflux, no MSPI but her own mummy was absolutely tiny)…they started her (the baby) on solids early (around 5 months) and she really took off. I know your little one is to small for that yet and there is probably going to be the complicatoon of her having intolerances….but just thought I would share.

Just with the reflux tests…it would be interesting to know what they did. Alana has never been tested…but after reading a few posts here I know a lot of bubs have tested negative on tests because the baby wasn’t refluxing at the exact time they did the test.

Have a nice Easter. Hope the bunny hops your way

[Anonymous]

I don’t know if babies spit up alot when they have reflux…but, she seldom spits up.

My daughter called about an hour after she picked her up from me after
work and said that her stool was thicker …yeah…nothing like getting
excited over poop!

[Anonymous]

You can have silent reflux, in fact quite a few of our babies don’t spit up much at all. Alana hardly ever spit up, but when she did boy was it acidic. You would hear her regurg and then she would gulp and swallow (versus spit)….this can cause quite a bit of irritation to their system.

Its great to hear the poo is thicker. We all get excited about poo here…your in the right place

[Anonymous]

Good news about the poo – good poops are a big deal around our house too!

I was thinking about your granddaughter’s situation today, and I wondered if the doctor ever mentioned adding rice cereal to her bottles? Now I haven’t done it myself, but I’ve read a number of posts here about it, and maybe some other moms with experience in this area might comment as well. While cereal added to bottles is often used to thicken the formula so as to help reduce reflux, it also has some other uses that may benefit your situation. It certainly adds more calories to the feed, which may help little ones with poor weight gain. It also make the Neocate taste a little better, so she might drink it more willingly. As well, rice cereal is constipating for many babies, and that may be beneficial in your situation if she keeps having chronic diarrhea. It’s worth looking into I think.

[Anonymous]

The specialist has been strict about making sure she has nothing except
the formula. He said absolutely NOTHING. But I do have
WONDERFUL news. We weren’t suppose to get her weighed until next
Thurs., but we couldn’t wait. She has gained ONE POUND since last
week!!!

2 weeks ago she only gained 3 oz., the following week NONE, and since
last week a WHOLE POUND!!! She now weighs 9 lbs. 8 oz.!!!!!!

Yippeeeee!!! And this morning her diaper had little chunks in it, instead of just a puddle of liquid!!!!

Maybe the Neocate is starting to kick in!! She also took a 4 oz. bottle of straight Neocate this morning!!!!

Thanks for all your support, advice, prayers, etc…

I’ll keep you posted!

Have a great day!

[Anonymous]

Hooray! That’s great news! I hope she continues to drink her Neocate and gain weight.

[Anonymous]

Oh my goodness – that’s wonderful! A pound is great news. I really hope the Neocate is the answer for her!

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