Off the breast and on to Neocate at 9 mths any ideas?

[charlar]

Hi

I'm new to the site and was wondering if anyone had any experience on weaning their babies onto Neocate. my ds has been prescribed neocate due to his allergies to dairy, wheat & egg which i think have caused him to have eczema since he was two weeks. While he's taking a bit of this formula in his breakfast and a bit from the lid of an avent bottle, he's putting up a big protest and I'm really keen to stop bf as I'm also avoiding a whole host of other food stuffs on the advice of my complimentary health specialist. my ds has never taken to the bottle and will only drink a couple of oz of bm from a avent magic (with the suction bit removed). We're a week in to trying to get him off bm. Any help would be greatly received.

[lou33]

Sorry charlar I don't have any help wrt weaning onto neocate at that age, mine was on it from much younger, so it didn't seen to be an issue, but thought I would bump this in case someone else can help.

Have you tried mixing it with your bm?

[vivie]

charlar, you might get some help if you posted on the breast and bottle feeding boards too. Sorry I can't offer any more useful advice, but good luck.

[aloha]

What foods are you avoiding? If your diet is so strict it is the only thing making you want to give up breastfeeding I think you might want to discuss it with your allergy specialist.

[charlar]

Hi thanks for your suggestions. I'm currently off yeast, caffiene, cod, chocolate, pork, citrus fruits, wheat, egg and dairy products including goats & sheep products. I've got an appt with with dietician in a couple of weeks to ensure that all is ok but my ds's growth chart is v healthy (btwn 91 & 75 percentile).

I have tried mixing 1 oz of my bm with 1 oz of the formula to try and get him to take it. I'll post on the bf boards too thanks.

[tatt]

Instead of taking things out of your diet has anyone suggested you add probiotics and fatty acids to it and/or to your child's diet? There is more evidence that they help than there is that avoiding foods in your diet will help. There really isn't much proof that avoiding things yourself will help, although I understand why you do it. Although many probiotics are derived from dairy it is posible to get dairy free ones in health food stores. You could give flaxseed oil to the baby - omega 3 fatty acids have a big effect on skin.

Try more breast milk and less neocate - 3 parts breast milk, one part neocate - or go cold turkey if you really want to wean them. A hungry baby will eventually take a bottle, its just traumatic for a time. You may be better continuing with the breat feeeding and changing your diet though.

[Portree]

Hi there. I can understand a little of your frustration. My ds is 11 months and is part b/f and part fed on Nutramigen ( dairy and egg intolerances) and soon the b/f will stop completely.

My ds now loves nutramigen and can't get enough of it but it has been a long time coming. Briefly, we got to this stage by using the nutramigen in his breakfast cereal and also mixed with some baby rice and fruit - this is a good way to get quite a lot of formula into them and get them used to the taste. We continued like this for a few months then ds started showing signs of disinterest in the breast so I started to give him a small amount of nutramigen in a cup mid-afternoon to get him used to drinking it 'straight' as it were. This was at about 9 months. I then dropped his 2 day time b/fs while giving him more nutramigen in the afternoon (with a rusk or biscuit which he loved), so he was still getting a b/f first and last thing. Then dropped the am feed and he takes about 8oz now from a cup. To begin with it was only about 4 oz but it soon built up. Ds has never taken to the bottle either. He's now just on one b/f at bedtime and this is more for comfort. I only got to this point through trial and error.

Have you tried giving him the neocate straight from the fridge? My ds loves it chilled and even first thing he doesn't like it warmed, just the chill taken off it. What do you give him for breakfast? I give my ds either millet or brown rice porridge and can easily use 5 oz of nutramigen. Perhaps stop giving him ebm in his cup (and in food) and give him the neocate instead and just do it at the same time everyday and see what happens. If he only gets the neocate in his cup he won't get confused? I know I'll probably get tutted at but when I was first trying to get ds to drink the nutramigen I did put a small amount of sugar in it to make it a bit more palatable and I just reduced the amount I put in over the course of a week.

I tried eliminating foods from my diet and found that it had no effect on ds's eczema at all. However ds is now eczema free and I think this was a combination of the homeopathy and giving him daily probiotics. I tried flaxseed oil for a long time too and when I stopped his eczema didn't restart. The probiotics, like the other poster said, are one of the few 'complimentary' treatments that have been scientifically proven to reduce eczema. I use bifidobacterium infantis which is dairy free.

Sorry this is so garbled as I'm in a rush but I hope it helps in some way.

[Elf]

Charlar, I too started DS on Neocate at a later stage and as he had been used to Nutramigen from 5 months after bf it was no problem. I hope that Portree's great post helps, I just wanted to say that we really feel that Neocate has helped DS. Two days after switching to it, DS's skin was remarkably improved and still is after about 3 weeks. Good luck.

[charlar]

Hi thanks again, you're all really helpful. I'll persist and hope that he gets used to it. I tried to give it to him first thing but he wasn't having any of it but at lunchtime he had about an oz which was good.

on the subject of probiotics etc., we're on INT b2 from biocare and he also has, eskimo kids, sunflower oil in his dinner and primose oil on his eczema daily - all on the advice of the complementary therapist (kineosologist). His ezcema is so much improved since we started with her and yesterday we had an almost completely clear day. this has been due to me coming off the wheat & eggs which came up in a skin prick test he had done last week. at least i think it was that so fingers crossed.

[mygirllolipop]

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