Pleaser talk to me about Neocate Active....

[feesh]

Hi everyone,
I am an expat living overseas and my son, aged 14 months, is on Neocate LCP due to a non-IGE mediated cow's milk protein allergy.

The medical care here isn't always that great, and you can't get Neocate Active here at all because they don't import it. They want to switch him to Neocate Advance instead in the next month and will no longer prescribe me the LCP.

Thing is, he eats a very good and varied diet. The only other allergy he has is strawberries.

I just don't see the point in putting him on Neocate Advance. I think Neocate Active would suit him much more. I believe that Advance is meant to be given as a number of drinks/bottles per day, which my DS wouldn't go for - he is barely on two bottles a day nowadays, having naturally dropped them during weaning. With Neocate Active, I'd only need to get 300ml down him per day.

I am toying with the idea of buying Neocate Active myself from the reputable chemist.net - I know it would be expensive, but I can make savings elsewhere for the sake of my son's health.

I make sure his diet is calcium rich, so would one sachet a day of Neocate Active be OK? (I know this seems really daft getting such important advice off a bunch of internet strangers, but I am doing a great deal of research and really thinking this through, so it will form part of a balance of evidence which I will weigh up before deciding how to proceed). I really do have to plough my own way here through the medical system and I want to do what's right for my DS, which may involve going against the limited medical advice available to us here.

I would love to hear any opinions from Neocate Active/Advance users.

Also, a final question - is Necoate Active even necessary? Why don't people just wean their little ones off Neocate LCP and then aim to give them a good and varied calcium-rich diet? Is the point of Neocate Active purely to get enough calcium down them, or is there more to it?

We had both advance and aktive similtaneously because the 200ml advance sachets were handlier for out and about than the 300ml active. We gave av soluble calcium supplement as well

Hi we are on neocate active and have been prescribed 600mls per day for our one year old. I think as well as the calcium it is the fat content you need it for. This age group need 40% fat in their diet - normal kids get most of that from dairy. Just something else to look out for.

Watching with interest as our son is 10 months. I don't really want to keep him on formula if I can help it so I'd be interested to know why people continue on it after 12 months. Whole milk is only 4% fat, so couldn't they get enough fat from a really good diet - avocados, olives, meat, etc? Ditto the calcium, there are tons of foods with calcium in but dietitian's don't seem to want to give me detailed advice, just tell me to continue with formula after 12 months, so I'm having to do loads of research myself.

Yep, whole milk is only 4% fat but cheese can be up to 50% and yoghurt and butter etc is also high fat. When you can't have these (and I have found cheese impossible to replace with anything that doesn't taste like sick) it can be hard to make up the fat, especially when lots of milk substitutes are low fat. One of my daughters is allergic to soya so can't have any yoghurts (also reacted to pea protein yoghurts). My kids love olives but totally refuse avocado. They love roast dinners but we still have to be careful not to give them too much saturated fat. So, neocate works for us. I guess the advice to stick to formula is based on the assumption that most people won't calculate all the different nutrients needed and make sure all boxes are ticked. It is pretty mind boggling, and I totally agree that more info on this from dieticians or doctors would be v helpful. Ours knew little more than us and decided our dosage by reading the neocate packet.

Ps the other complication with getting your fat from olives etc is that if your kids eat too much fruit or veg they can develop toddler diarrhoea, esp if their diet is otherwise low in fat. Toddlers need a fine balance of fat, fibre, fluids and something else starting with f that I can't remember, if they are to stay solid. I know this from messy experience when my older daughter was on oat milk and eating too much fruit. It's tricky coming up with a lot of non dairy AND non fruit/vegetable snacks. My kids eat a lot of organix goodies crisps, toast and breadsticks.

Thanks, this is really interesting. So yes to Neocate of some sort, no to Neocate Advance?

Sorry don't know much about neocate advance - is it maybe for older kids? ... Hmm just looked up its website - says it is not suitable for "infants" though age range given is for kids aged 1-10. Also says that it should be "sole source of nutrition". Does that mean it is specialist food for kids who can't eat solids? Don't know, but also don't know why it would be recommended instead of neocate active...

Apparently Advance is a complete meal in a drink, so to speak, for kids with really severe allergies that hardly eat anything. Which is why I don't want it prescribed for my son and I want him on Active instead.

I didn't have much time to reply properly earlier, but this is a really interesting discussion, thanks everyone.

I do try and make sure my son gets lots of other fats in his diet, but it didn't realise we were so dependent on dairy fats. He is a real chunker though and we've never had any trouble with his weight gain, unlike others with food allergies.

Does anyone else find that dairy free can lead to a high sugar intake if you're not careful? Because my son has a twin sister on a normal diet, I find myself having to give more dairy substitutes than I might if he was an only child and so often that means sugary things e.g pea protein yoghurt, which is sweetened, sugar-free jam instead of Philadelphia (obv sugar free jam is still very high in fructose), fruit instead of a piece of cheese for 'afters' etc etc.

Hi again. Yes, snacks are def tricky. As I said, I used to rely on fruit and veg a lot until my older daughter developed toddler diarrhoea. Something else I have started giving them for snacks is plain pasta with sunflower spread or olive oil on it. Not much nutrition in that but it is filling and adds to their fat intake. I can imagine it is even harder if you have one child eating normally, at least both of mine are on the same restrictions. The advice we were given was to suspend all our understanding of what a healthy diet is - we have to limit veg to three portions and fruit to two (and a portion is what they can fit on palm of their hand, ie about three grapes, quarter of an apple etc) and to fry everything!

I would be interested to hear if that chimes with advice anyone else has received for dairy allergy sufferers...

I haven't received any good advice like that, but it is pretty much what I've been doing anyway. Home made fish fingers fried in loads of rapeseed or olive oil, red meat every week, bread dipped in olive oil, basically just as much fat as possible! I don't eat the same meals as them or I would be the size of a house!

God I'm so thick, I'd forgotten about the fat content of cheese!!

Agree with you about snacks, I find it so hard to think of things that aren't just fruit on rice cakes! I've started to make alternatives to hummus with different beans/pulses and olive oil added, so snacks aren't always sweet.

I know kids need saturated as well as unsaturated fats but it's hard to get your head around feeding them things that we have pretty much been programmed to minimise.