.jpg)
Patient History
From the day he was born, Ben screamed constantly. He was constipated and unable to sleep. He was underweight but refused to eat. Developmentally, he lagged behind other children his age and he was frequently sick with ear infections. He also suffered from a rash all over his body. “Ben was miserable and the rest of the family was miserable,” said Ben’s mother Leanna. “I never got a good night’s sleep and I literally nearly went insane.”
Nutritional Management and Outcome
For the first month of his life, Leanna took Ben to the doctor almost every day. He weighed 8 pounds at birth, but at his one month check-up, he had barely gained half a pound. By the time Ben was four or five months old, his height and his weight were so low he was no longer on the growth charts. The pediatrician diagnosed Ben with food allergies. Leanna tried everything to help her son. First, since she was breastfeeding, she tried eliminating foods from her own diet. But the baby didn’t get better. Then she gave Ben anti-reflux medicines -- first Prilosec and then Reglin. At first these medicines seemed to help, but after a couple of hours Ben was back to screaming. At five months, Ben was referred to a pediatric gastroenterologist who prescribed Prevacid. The drug helped some, but to keep breastfeeding Leanna had to eliminate all dairy, egg, soy, peanuts, tree nuts and beef from her diet. And while Ben’s symptoms seemed to improve some, he was still not gaining any weight!
Finally at 18 months, with Ben weighing only 19 pounds, Ben’s gastroenterologist recommended Neocate One+*, a nutritionally complete amino acid-based medical food for children over the age of one. Ben began drinking two packs per day of Neocate One+ and gained a pound a month for the first four months. “I can finally sleep in peace at night knowing that Ben is getting the nutrition that the needs from Neocate’s complete formula,” said Leanna.
Summary
After a year and a half of constant crying, sleepless nights and almost no weight gain, Ben and his family finally found answers with Neocate One+, an amino acid-based formula that his body could tolerate.