Neocate formula - has anyone tried and does does it taste vile?

[Bluemamma]

Hi all, after weeks of stress and tears we’re finally seeing an allergy paediatrician tomorrow with my 4 month old. His nurse already told me he will prescribe Neocate if he feels baby is allergic to milk protein. I’m now reading that’s it tastes vile :( baby is 4 month so old enough to like/dislike the taste and I worry he will not drink it at all. His current milk (hipp organic) is lovely and sweet.
Anyone can confirm how long it took for their baby to improve after neocate?

My son and daughter both had it and it transformed them as babies. They were absolutely fine with the switch and took to it straight away.

My daughter was put on this, but at a younger age (she was premature). I can confirm it tastes horrrible, like mashed potato. Your son may be fine with it, though 4 months is still young. I switched to Hipp Organic, there are others you could try though, sorry I can't remember the names.

Thanks. He was put on nutramigen and we are starting tomorrow :/ already dreading it

You can add a couple of drops of vanilla essence to it to make it taste better (checked this out with a dietician) she said use the expensive stuff not the cheap flavouring, one or two drops should do it.

We saw a difference in our little boy within a few days, he was also on Hipp Organic previously.

Thank you, just tried to give him his first bottle- only had 2 oz and poor thing was looking at me thinking what are you giving me?!:) and was pulling funny faces, but he did drink the 2oz so I’m hoping it will get better. It does taste and smell so bad :(

I thought it was vile but DD hoovered it down so it works for some.

Made a huge huge difference for mine as well. I mixed the regular and the Neocate together and slowly reduced the amount of the regular and increased the Neocate and DS eventually took the full Neocate just fine. At first he flat out refused it!

Good luck, OP.

Nutramigen and Neocate are both vile, and smell dreadful. But, my baby drank both of them, so she mustn’t have noticed 😂

My son had aptimil pepti. That stuff stank! But he drank it fine. He was combi fed so that surprised me given he was still having my milk.

We had 3 bottles so far (only 3 oz in each) and today is the first time in a month that he fell asleep within 5 mins. Normally he screams for about 20-40 mins every night before he falls asleep. Maybe it’s just coincidence because I think it’s too early to be seeing any results… but it’s a strange coincidence, fingers crossed. Thanks everyone !

It’s a good sign his system is finding it easier going!

My DS had Nutramigen. He loved it.

He is taking the Nutramigen but only about 60% of what he “should” be drinking. We are only on day 2 today. I’m thinking of giving him some baby rice today (mixed with his nutramigen milk) - he is 19 weeks now and the paediatrician said it’s absolutely fine to offer him some little amount of puréed veg and baby rice. Anyone else has weaned early while on nutramigen or other milk allergy formula? Obviously before anyone screams at me: I’m not going to give him a bale of baby rice:) I mean literally a little teaspoon or 2 to see if he has any intereste in it at all

It really helped my Son, but he didn't like the taste and when I tasted it, it was a bit metallic. We had to blend it with banana - but depends on the age of the baby. Hopefully your LO will take to it.

@May09Bump thanks that’s what the paediatrician said as well that I can blend it with a bit of carrot, banana or other suitable veg/fruit for 4+. I’m planning on mixing it with a bit of puréed carrot I think. Also a couple of drops of organic vanilla extract helps baby rice taste nicer

Do NOT taste nutramigen, it tastes even worse than it smells My dts really quite liked it though and scoffed their porridge fine.

It was a while ago for us but I think we needed a different flow bottle as the milk is obviously thicker with the puree - so just something to keep in mind. We have / had a range of allergies - some he grew out and some remain, but you adapt.

The best thing we did was request the blood allergy test, which identified other allergies too and also the level of each allergy.

@TheCanyon too late!:) I tasted it and to me it smells and taste like cat food… honestly can’t understand why they just couldn’t make it taste better but anyway that’s the way it is.
@May09Bump unfortunately they can’t test babies for milk protein allergies until 1, their immune systems are not strong enough to produce a response so the test are not reliable at all. The only way to know is to try the milk protein free formula unfortunately:/

It tastes like that because that's what happens to the taste when they breakdown all the proteins and remove the lactose. The lactose is the sugar that makes formula sweet but the allergenic ones have it removed in case it is a contributing factor to the allergic reaction.
In terms of seeing improvement in 1 day I definetly did. Within a day he was screaming less, he was sleeping better and within a few days I saw an improvement in his nappies.
Hope your lo continues to improve

Oh and in terms of taste I second what a pp said regarding vanilla essence. It's what I was advised. Also up to 4 /5 months is when they are most likely to take and adapt to the allergy formula as thir taste buds are still developing. Once they start weaning its alot more difficult to get them to take them.
My son drank it from 4 months till he was 1 then he started refusing it. Lucking he was able to have oat milk at that point so he transitioned to that.

My DD who liked neutramigan hated it in baby porridge/rice. To be fair it tasted even worse with the rice than without... we didn't try again after that!

@Bluemamma

He is taking the Nutramigen but only about 60% of what he “should” be drinking. We are only on day 2 today. I’m thinking of giving him some baby rice today (mixed with his nutramigen milk) - he is 19 weeks now and the paediatrician said it’s absolutely fine to offer him some little amount of puréed veg and baby rice. Anyone else has weaned early while on nutramigen or other milk allergy formula? Obviously before anyone screams at me: I’m not going to give him a bale of baby rice:) I mean literally a little teaspoon or 2 to see if he has any intereste in it at all

We weaned early due to the CMPA and poor weight gain. The dietician recommended baby rice for us as it was a way of getting another formula feed into him and no other allergens.

Weaning early was hands down the best thing we did for our son. We moved onto pouches of purée veg quite quickly we needed to have an idea of how much he was eating so the pouches were the easiest way to track that. He also had toast and marmite once he got to 6 months and coconut yoghurt with fruit purée.

Happy to share more experiences with it.

@Twizbe thanks a lot, we did give him some baby rice yesterday with a bit of puréed carrot and he seemed to enjoy it, he is definitely not ready yet but we will offer one or two teaspoons a day and take things very slowly. We are on day 3 today and he is drinking a little more than before so I hope this will continue 👍🏼

Hi how're you getting on? Switching baby from aptamil pepti to neocate in a few days. He is 4 months worried he won't take it as it smells vile!

Takes and smells like (I imagine) old sweaty socks. DD seemed to love it. A parent I know who struggled to get their baby to drink it was advised to mix a tiny amount of fruit puree in with it. I weaned DD with reflux at 18 weeks and used neocate. With DC2 who could tolerate soya I used to mix the alpro "toddler" soya milk in food from six months. Some babies with CMPI can't tolerate soya either though.