Planning a summer vacation?  Taking Neocate with you?  We want to come along!  Mallory, one of our nutrition specialists created this great video explaining how you can share with us all the fun places Neocate visits this summer: 

To recap, while on vacation this summer take a picture of you and your Neocate can or Splash box while out having fun or at any landmarks your family visits.  Then, once you’ve taken your picture post it on our Facebook wall with a caption telling us where you are.  This way we’ll get to see all of the fun places Neocate visits this summer!

 So, where are you and Neocate spending summer vacation?  Let us know by posting a comment in the comment section!  

Birthday cakes are so much more than just the ingredients that go into them. They are symbolic of accomplishment, celebration and childhood in general. Each birthday cake is a milestone for another celebrated year of life. Every parent feels an instinctive need to provide their child with a birthday cake.

When your child has a food allergy or other condition limiting the food that they can eat, a typical birthday cake may not be an option. I am always amazed by the measures that parents take to provide a suitable birthday cake for their child. I’ve talked to parents who are traveling to different stores all over town to gather allergy-safe alternative ingredients for their masterpiece cake.  If you are looking for an allergy-friendly cake recipe, there are several in our Food Allergy Cookbook. Please keep in mind that allergy-friendly doesn’t necessarily mean allergy-free so be sure to check if the ingredients are appropriate for your child’s specific food allergies. For some more tips on allergy-friendly birthday parties, visit http://www.foodallergy.org/page/birthday-party-tips-.

For kids who are not able to eat food at all, this is an even greater challenge. In these cases, parents get extremely creative making fun, non-edible birthday cakes. For example, Connor’s birthday “Neo-Cake” or Sy’s foodless bowling cake. My sister Caroline has a feeding tube but up until last year, she was able to eat SOME food by mouth so we always just got her a regular birthday cake. She can no longer have any food by mouth due to swallowing problems so this year, I made her a fake pink and purple princess cake out of cardboard, foam paper, ribbon, tissue paper and glitter paint (pictured below). We poked little holes in it and inserted candles for her to blow out. Her favorite part of birthdays is singing and blowing out the candles so she didn’t even seem to miss eating cake. In fact I think she loved this foodless cake even more because she can keep it and we can relight the candles and sing over and over again (although she might think she is 300 years old by now).

The moral of the story is that food restrictions don’t have to stop you from giving your little one a happy birthday. When it comes down to it, birthdays are not about the cake but about the effort that goes into making your little one feel special on their day. With a little creativity, you can still have a great time celebrating another year and milestone.

Have a great allergy-friendly cake recipe to share? Please do! We’d also love to see pictures of your creative foodless cake ideas!

-Mallory

Many Neocate parents know that using allergy testing to determine food allergies can be tricky, because many children experience what may be considered a food intolerance or sensitivity, versus a true food allergy. 

Generally, a food allergy is considered to be an immunoglobulin E (IgE) mediated immune response.  (1) In a previous blog, we have outlined the standard tests that may be done to determine whether your child has an Ig-E mediated food allergy, such as a skin prick test or a RAST.

However, you or your child may have a negative IgE test, but still appear to have symptoms that are typical of a food intolerance or sensitivity.  Several tests are now marketed as tools for determining these types of non-IgE mediated food reactions.  While more research is needed to determine the accuracy of these tests, they may provide helpful clues as to which foods to consider eliminating from the diet. Some of these tests include:

Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA): A blood test that is intended to measure levels of immunoglubulin G (IgG) in response to different foods.  However, elevated IgG does not always indicate an adverse food reaction.  In fact, sometimes elevated IgG is an indicator that an IgE response, or a true allergy, has been successfully treated.  This test may be helpful in providing clues as to which foods to consider eliminating, but remember that elevated IgG does not always mean that there is a negative reaction to the food.  (2, 3)

Mediator Release Testing (MRT): A blood test that in intended to measure many types of non-Ig-E mediated food intolerances or sensitivities, including IgG response.  Proponents of MRT believe that because it assesses multiple immune pathways it provides a more complete picture of which foods are causing symptoms compared to IgG testing.  (3)

Atopy Patch Testing (APT): A skin test used to determine delayed food reactions.  A preparation of the food is placed in an aluminum chamber on the skin for 48 hours. Twenty four hours after removal the skin is inspected for a reaction; a positive reaction is determined based on the level of redness and swelling.  (1) Some practitioners find that APT is a great tool to use along side IgE testing in order to a get a more complete picture of all the foods that may be causing symptoms for you or your little one.

Have you tried any of these tests?  We would love to hear about your experience! 

References:

1. Carney, Liesje Nieman. (2009, July). Pediatric Food Allergies. Today’s Dietitian, 11, 48.

2. Joneja, Janice Vickerstaff. (2008, January). Food Allergies: Type II, III, and IV Hypersensitivities. Today’s Dietitian, 10, 10.

3. Keller, Maura. (2010, August). Get Certified- Provide a Valuable Service By Adding Allergy Testing to Your Practice. Today’s Dietitian, 12, 18. 

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We often hear about Neocate families who in addition to following a dairy and soy free diet, also need to follow a gluten free diet as treatment for Celiac Disease.

Celiac Disease is an autoimmune condition that results in damage to the small intestine when gluten, a protein in wheat, barley, and rye, is consumed.

Currently, the only treatment for Celiac Disease is strict adherence to a gluten free diet.  In recent years more and more delicious gluten free versions of your favorite foods, such as breads, cereals, and crackers, have become available; however the cost of these specialty foods can add up quickly.  Fortunately, some of the cost of these gluten free foods may be tax deductible as a medical expense.

In order to take this deduction you must have a diagnosis of Celiac Disease, and you must also itemize your deductions.  The Celiac Disease Foundation does a wonderful job of summarizing the ins and outs of how this deduction works.  Check out their website for more information.   

We hope this tip will help you save some cents this tax season!

-Irene

Last week, the Neocate team had the pleasure of exhibiting atthe American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) annual conference in Orlando, Florida.  This year’s conference had more than 5000 allergists and healthcare professionals from around the world covering topics from T Cell regulation to Eosinophilic Esophagitis.

More than 300 healthcare professionals (HCPs) visited our stand during the show to learn more about Nutriciaand to try samples of the new Neocate Junior with Prebiotics, Vanilla.  Also, for the first time we introduced our new range of services offered to the families that use our products.  The new range of services includes:

1. Our Nutricia Product Coverage Navigator – a service to help residents of Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Texas gain reimbursement coverage of Nutricia products.

2. Our Nutritional Specialist helpline manned by professional experts to help both parents and healthcare professionals use and understand all of our products.

3. Our new and improved website Neocate.com with many new services for parents including our online diary and symptom checker.

4. Our Neocate online store where we offer customers the cheapest prices.

5. Our new Nutricia Learning Center (NLC), which provides new and specialized education for HCP’s to help understand the complexity of the many issues that a cow’s milk allergy can cause.

Here at Nutricia we really believe in educating all of our HCP’s about the services we offer so they can pass that information onto our Neocate families.

We wanted to say a special thanks to the HCP’s that visited our stand and AAAAI for a very busy but very rewarding weekend in Orlando!

On behalf of all of us here at Nutricia North America, the makers of Neocate, we want to wish you and your family a very happy and healthy Valentine’s Day!

Also, check out some of our past blog posts for tips to help you and your family have a safe holiday:

• Allergy-Free Valentine’s Day!
• Celebrating Valentine’s Day Safely
• Great Kid Treats & Snacks for an Allergy-Safe Valentine’s Day!

Do you have any tips for having an allergy-friendly Valentine’s Day?  Let us know in the comment section!

-The Food Allergy Team 

For the next three weeks, we’ll be posting some allergy-friendly meal ideas, starting with breakfast. While it can be difficult to come up with meal ideas for standard diets or choosy children, a diet that has allergy restrictions is even tougher! Here are some breakfast ideas that might help you add variety. As always, check with your little one’s health care team to make sure they are appropriate.

Neocate-Only Breakfast Ideas

For children whose diets are strictly limited to amino acid-based formula, it’s helpful to have ideas that add variety. For instance, mixing some of the flavors and formats that Neocate offers can help fight the formula monotony. One of our favorite ideas for children over one year is mixing Neocate Nutra with Neocate Junior Tropical, Neocate Junior with Prebiotics Vanilla, or Neocate’s E028 Splash Grape. A ratio of about four scoops of Nutra powder to every one ounce of a prepared Neocate formula provides you with what we like to call “almost-yogurt.” You can of course adjust the ratio to your child’s tastes. For children older than six months but below one year, you might try mixing Neocate Nutra with a pasteurized fruit juice that they tolerate.

Top Eight Allergen-Free Breakfast Ideas

If your child is on an elimination diet for eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) or is avoiding all of the eight major allergens, you can try mixing a Neocate product with pureed fruit. By mixing Neocate Junior with fruit you can come up with some great breakfast shakes and outstanding flavor combinations. Or by mixing Neocate Nutra with pureed fruit you can come up with a great alternative to oatmeal. If you want to serve it warm, we still recommend against using a microwave: start with warm juice instead to avoid the hot spots and lower nutrient levels microwaves can cause.

Less Restrictive Breakfast Ideas

For children who avoid dairy and only one or two other allergens, we have some great breakfast suggestions in our online Neocate Food Allergy Cookbook, a compilation of recipes submitted by families. Mallory posted her top 5 breakfast ideas from the cookbook, many of which use wheat, in a previous blog. One great thing about a lot of these recipes is that many can be made in a large batch, portioned, and frozen or refrigerated for later use. The Apple-Oat Muffins on page seven would definitely be in my top five! We’ve also had a few breakfast recipes appear in blog posts, such as Banana Bread Muffins.

If your family has a favorite “standard” breakfast recipe that involves milk but is otherwise allergy-friendly, you may be able to substitute Neocate formula for the milk. While this might change the final result a little bit and may require some experimenting, it will provide the high levels of most nutrients from Neocate that other milk substitutes (such as water or rice milk) can’t provide. Just be aware that the high heat from cooking will lower some of Neocate’s nutrient levels, especially some vitamins. Again, check all recipes to be sure that the ingredients are safe for your child and ensure that the health care team is on board.

What allergy-friendly breakfast ideas have helped your family in the morning?

Rob

Did you know that Feeding Tube Awareness Week is happening right now? It is! This year Feeding Tube Awareness Week falls on February 5-11. You can help the Oley Foundation  and Feeding Tube Awareness Foundation  (FTAF) spread the word.

We know, many children who benefit from Neocate products have to use a feeding tube to get their nutrition.  If you’re new to tube feeding and are looking for folks who share similar stories, try the Oley Foundation’s support community or the FTAF’s inspiring stories. You can also visit the Oley Foundation’s facebook page and FTAF’s facebook page. 

The FTAF launched Feeding Tube Awareness Week last year with great success! Both organizations’ websites have some great tips for how you can help spread the word. Ideas include contacting local media outlets as well as using social media platforms. This is a great opportunity to help raise awareness of feeding tubes in your community to promote greater acceptance and understanding. 

To someone who isn’t familiar with feeding tubes, they can be strange and confusing. On one hand, parents can have a tough time adjusting to tube feeding. On another, people in the community don’t always know how to react to feeding tubes. You can help inform others about how many precious little ones’ lives have been improved and saved with the help of feeding tubes.

Is there something you’ve done to help promote feeding tube awareness?

- Rob 

[Image name: Feeding Tube Awareness Week - Image link: http://www.oley.org/Tube_Feeding_Awareness_2012.htm]

[Image name: Feeding Tube Awareness Logo - Image link: http://www.feedingtubeawareness.org/raising-awareness.html]

Cross contamination is a big concern among food allergy sufferers.  According to Kids with Food Allergies, cross contamination can be defined as “a food being inadvertently contaminated with food proteins other than those listed on the food label during the course of its being prepared, stored or served”.

During Manufacturing and Production:

One way that cross contamination may occur is during the manufacturing of a food. For example, when a safe food is manufactured on the same equipment as an unsafe food, there is a chance for trace amounts of the unsafe food to end up in the safe food. For those with food allergies, even trace amounts of an allergen can lead to serious allergic reactions.

Although the Food Allergen Labeling and consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA) requires manufacturers to clearly list the top 8 allergens on the food label, this rule does not account for cross contamination. Sometimes you will see “may contain (allergen)” or “made in a facility that also produces (allergen)” on a label but the manufacturers are not required to list this information. If you have any doubts, call the manufacturers and ask about the possibility of cross contamination. If your child’s allergies are severe and the manufacturer can’t guarantee it is safe, its probably not worth the risk.

By the way, this is why we are proud to say that Neocate is the only amino acid-based infant formula prepared in a 100% milk-free manufacturing site, eliminating the risk for cross contamination!

At Home:

Cross contamination can also happen in your home. Kids with Food Allergies provides some helpful tips on minimizing this risk: http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/resourcespre.php?id=65.

Eating Out:

Eating out can be intimidating for those with food allergies because you have less control over how foods are handled and efforts to minimize cross contamination. For helpful tips, check out this article from Food Allergy Gourmet.

Food Safety for Everyone:

The risk of cross contamination is not limited to allergy sufferers. Cross contamination of bacteria from foods (such as raw meat, seafood and eggs) is a concern for everyone. To keep you and your loved ones safe, follow these tips from the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Have any of your children experienced an allergic reaction as a result of cross contamination?  Any advice to offer other parents?
 

-Mallory

As most of you know, we redesigned our Neocate.com website in May of 2011.  In case you haven’t paid us a visit, come on by.  We added a few new online tools to help provide support and guidance to you and your family.  Our new Parent’s Toolbox and Reference Library includes a symptoms guide, glossary and a symptom checker which have all gotten great reviews – thank you for the feedback! 

Our website is always a work in progress and we will continue to work on providing new tools and resources.  Our newest online tool that we are excited to share with you is the online diary!

The online diary is a perfect tool to use when you are trying to determine the right formula for your child, starting on solids or reintroducing foods into your little ones diet.

It is tough to remember or keep track of all the small (or big) symptoms or behaviors that may occur throughout the day and even more difficult trying to relate those symptoms back to a food if you’re not recording it somewhere.  Keeping a daily diary of what your child eats and drinks – and any symptoms you see afterward – gives your child’s doctors vital information. It can help them identify what might be triggering any symptoms. This online diary makes keeping track of everything a snap.

Over the past few weeks, under the guidance of my little ones physician, I have started adding solids into my 6 month olds diet.  Since starting, I've noticed a little rash around his mouth and chin.  With the dry winter weather just starting and the drool from new teeth coming in I couldn't figure out if the new foods I was introducing was causing the rash or not.

So I started using the online diary to record everything that we did.  When he took a bottle, when he ate solids, what he ate, when he was out in the cold, when the rash appeared, the severity of the rash, etc.  With the help of the online diary I was then able to begin to see a pattern of when the rash was appearing - right after we fed him, every night.  Could he really be allergic to peas?  I still had my doubts but relieved to have a record of what was occurring to share with my doctor.  Now we both had a clear understanding of what was going on and therefore were able to best determine the root of the problem.

I hope all of you find the online diary to be as resourceful as I do.  Do you have any other ideas of useful tools you'd like to see on Neocate.com?

-Sarah