Elecare jr and neocate jr comparison for reflux?

[Anonymous]

Hi. I’m new to the boards. My baby is 5 months old. She has had silent reflux since she was a week old. She tried and got sick from every formula basically. We had her on a formula from Ireland that seemed to work for a few months, but at around 4 months, her reflux went berserk and she couldn’t handle formula well at all. She has always had minor facial rashes, flushing, and eczema on her face and diaper rash that never went away. That all got worse with any infant formula I tried her on that was made in the US.

She also coughed and sneezed all the time. She went from being a comfort feeder to a bottle refuser and she’s already small for her size as is.

She went from silent refluxing to full on vomiting.

Anyway, we took her to her GI who suggested that she had a DHA/ARA allergy as well as allergies to preservatives, so we kept her on the Irish formula, but she was still refusing bottles, still having terrible reflux and her facial rash and eczema seemed steady. We tried homemade goats milk formula, and that was worse. She was refluxing like crazy.

So we took her to an allergist who put her on Neocate Jr unflavored last week because everything was broken down and it contained no dha. we dilute it to the 20 calorie dilution. She did skin testing on her, but found no allergies. After putting her on Neocate Jr, she began to do much better, but no matter how much I thickened her feeds, she would still spit up a lot and seem like she was in pain. Her ped tripled her dose of omeprazole, but i’m not sure that’s helping her appetite.

Anyway, we ran out of neocate jr while waiting for Wic to okay her on the formula. They also said they needed to special order it since it was such a ‘weird situation.’ So we ended up buying a case of Elecare Jr unflavored because it was cheap on EBay just until we got the neocate jr. Her allergist ok’d it. She seems even better on the elecare and seems to spit up a lot less so far, but she’s only been on it a day.

So i guess my question now is what are your thoughts and experiences with both formulas? Can anyone tell me if this is too good to be true? I’d hate to annoy wic and the allergist again by asking for the elecare jr just to find out that she’s gone back to not wanting to eat much anymore.

Also, is there a difference between intolerances and allergies? Like medically? it seems like people use the terms milk/soy intolerance interchangeably with Milk Soy allergy. I’m just a bit confused since they tested her for 10 food allergies and she was negative for all of them, but still seemed like she was allergic to something.

[Anonymous]

I wish you could update as I’m going through same stuff w my dd. She has tummy troubles on all elementals. So I’m going to try neocate jr to see if the dha/ara is to blame for.

[hellbennt]

update! please? I’m trying to get this board going again. it’s helped all of you, so please help it!

thanks!

laura

[Anonymous]

Hi! Little Nyana is almost 10 months on neocate infant and OTC omeprazole 10mg 2x a day with some safe solids. It’s gotten a loy better. We still have a few episodes when she eats something that doesn’t set well with her, colds, and teething. But life is so much better!!! Sometimes she sleeps through the nigth! Hallelujah! Tough journey. Hang in there momma’s it does get better!!!!

[Anonymous]

`So I’m no expert but about the allergies vs sensitivities question here’s what I know. In a classic allergy your body sees something (like say peanuts) and creates a histamine reaction, itching, swelling, hives maybe etc. With a sensitivity you aren’t getting a histamine reaction but you are still getting a reaction caused by different set of immune system components probably. Celiac disease is a specific sensitivity, when you eat gluten etc and the vili in your intestines start to absorb it your body freaks out and your immune system destroys those vili in an autoimmune response, tearing up your intestines. That’s an eosinophil related response so it’s caused by different immune components than the classic allergy. My LO has allergic colitis, meaning his intestines bleed when he gets milk or soy. He was skin prick allergy tested negative for those things, but the Dr said a blood test is necessary to rule it out because sometimes the allergy will only show up on one of the tests for some reason, so it’s not ruled out yet. I think, I may be categorizing this wrong, that another sort of sensitivity would be lactose intollerance, in which yourbody doesn’t make enough of the necessary enzymes to be able to digest milk. Sometimes you can’t break something down so it irritates your GI tract-stomach. Not all sensitivities have been specifically diagnosed so they just use the word “sensitivity” non-specifically. Some sensitivities occur when your body mismetabolizes something like casein or another protien, that can be pretty serious sometimes. It’s more likely that someone will have an immune response to a protien because protiens are more complex so there are more possible sequences for a T-cell to recognize, but it’s possible for T-cells to recognize sequences on carbohydrates and even fats, it’s just very unlikely with fats because the sequences they present are so very simple. I don’t know how much carb pr protirn contamination there might be in oils rendered from something like corn or soy. No idea. Also materials in something can cause other problems, like the hormone mimicking properties in soy potentially messing with your endocrine system, that might be called a sensitivity but it isn’t caused by your immune system. That’s my inexpert summary. Neocate’s website has a good little article on allergies that’s probably better.

We will be trying the Neocate Jr soon but have tried Elecare Jr after being on Neocate infant until my LO turned one this week. He won’t touch the Elecare Jr vanilla so far. In case anyone is wondering it tastes like warm melted vanilla and carmel icecream and is VERY sweet. My LO doesn’t like sweet but if yours does, awesome! The Neocate was all he would tolerate with his issues with milk and soy. He might also have had an immature gi tract, that happens too.

My LO has reflux and has to be on both zantac and omeprazole or it doesn’t help enough. The GI dr said that people have different types-combinations of receptors in their stomachs which is why different medicines work for different people, because they work on different receptors. He’s 18lbs and currently on 1.4ml zantac 2x daily and 4ml omeprazole 2x daily. He still refluxes some, mostly silently, but at least it’s not burning him as much.

Anyway, hope something in there is helpful.

PS. The Neocate infant tastes sort of like liquid chicken and green beans, but my LO preferrd it to Elecare anyway, but it makes their poop green-black fyi.

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