Refluxing worse on Neocate??

[Anonymous]

Hi all! I am new to the forum, and have found a lot of helpful info on this site. Thanks for sharing and educating!

My 6 week old has just been started on neocate after continuing to have blood in his stools and spit up after a trial of alimentum. He seemed to have settled on the alimentum and prevacid as far as the reflux goes, but was having an increase in the amount of blood in his stools. Now after only 2 days on neocate his refluxing is at its worst. He cries for hours at a time, and is now not sleeping again. He almost sounds as if he is aspirating at times. I know the alimentum was still causing issues, but at least he seemed happy on it. Has anyone else had these issues before? Would Elecare be any better or do I need to just give him more time? Maybe thicken his feeds? Help!

[Anonymous]

Hi!

Wow, your baby sounds a lot like my DS2 in his early early weeks!!! We went through the same thing! At 5-6 weeks we also switched to Neocate when he had increased blood in stools on alimentum. The Neocate does take time. My DS also seemed to do worse on it in the beginning. Neocate is VERY THIN, so it takes time for baby to adjust. They will reflux more at first, but the most important thing is that it’s healing the damage to the GI system and the colon (allergic colitis). Once the GI system is healed, there will be a lot less refluxing as a result.

One concern though is that you said you though you heard some aspirating….you won’t know for sure if your baby is aspirating unless you have a modified barium swallow done. It is not a painful test for baby, so that might be something you can talk to the pedi or pedi GI about. That will let you know for sure if aspiration is occurring and what consistency the formula needs to be thickened to (honey, nectar, etc). Some people have a lot of success using Simply Thick or Thick-It gel thickeners with Elemental formulas.

It has been the experience of many moms though that giving the neocate up to 3-4 weeks to heal the system has done wonders for their babies!

Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

my ds refluxed WAY more on it as well in the 1st week.. but now it has settled down to be about the same as on the alimentum.. maybe a little less. she also has mucousy poops now on the neocate.. i am thinking it does clear out their system?? its been 2.5 weeks for us.. so just incase u see any junk coming out.. i THINK its normal.

[Anonymous]

Connor has been on neocate since two weeks before Christmas, and we definitely needed a few weeks before we saw the improvement. After one week I remember he had a day of inconsolable screaming and I thought it would never end. By by the new year he was doing much much better.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all of your input. I guess we just need to give things a little more time. So, my ds is going to have a modified barium swallow done sometime this week to rule out anatomical issues as well as the questionable aspiration. In the meantime, we are going to start thickening his feeds and see if that helps at all. I don’t know how much longer I can stand to see him hurting for hours on end. Last night was worse than ever! 6 straight hours of being inconsolable. I feel so bad for him!I hope we are doing the right things!

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