Many Moms and Dads come to us with questions about how to properly mix Neocate products.  This is why in addition to the preparation instructions on our website, our nutrition specialists have created videos explaining how to properly mix Neocate products for our blog and NeocateUS YouTube channel! 

We are excited to share with you our most recent mixing video for Neocate Nutra.     

Neocate Nutra is the first hypoallergenic semi-solid medical food for children and infants over 6 months of age.  The product is great as a snack for a toddler with cow’s milk allergy and also for transitioning infants onto solid foods. 

 Neocate Nutra is not meant to be a replacement for any type of Neocate formula, because it is not formulated to be nutritionally complete.  But, it is a great way to supplement your child’s diet with some extra calories, vitamin D and calcium!  

We hear from a lot of parents who give it as a snack, or mix it with other safe foods like pudding or mashed potatoes.  For even more ideas, we have a Nutra recipe guide with a collection of tasty recipes on the website.  

Have you tried Nutra?  Do you find this video helpful? What other mixing videos would you like to see? Let us know by posting a comment in the comment section!    

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

Estamosorgullosos de ofrecer a la Guía de Padres infantil Neocate - Español como unaguía de recursos para padres cuyos hijos han sido recomendados para usar Neocate para el tratamiento dietéticode las alergias e intolerancias alimentarias.

Entendemos queel tratamiento dietético de las alergias alimentarias pueden variar entre los niños. Por lo tanto, se recomienda encarecidamente que esta guía se utiliza en la consulta con un profesional de la salud. 

Además, recibimos muchas preguntas sobre cómo mezclar infantil Neocate DHA ARA. Además de la Guía de Padres infantil Neocate - Español, hemos creado un vídeo Cómo Mezclar Neocate para nuestro canal de YouTube NeocateUS! 

Esperamos que encuentreútileste video! Incluso parainstrucciones más detalladas, o si tiene alguna pregunta adicional, por favor póngase en contacto con nuestros especialistas en nutrición en nutritionservices@nutricia.com o 1-800-NEOCATE.

¿Usted encuentra estos recursos útiles? ¿Qué otros tipos de recursos y de vídeos que te gustaría ver?

(English Tranlsation Below)

Neocate Infant Parent Guide & Mixing Instructions – Spanish Edition!

We are proud to offer the Neocate Infant Parent Guide – Español as a resource guide for parents whose child has been recommended to use Neocate for the dietary management of food allergies and intolerances. 

We understand that the dietary management of food allergies can differ between children.  As such, it is strongly recommended that this guide be used in consultation with a healthcare professional.

Also, we receive lots of questions about how to properly mix Neocate Infant DHA ARA.  In addition to the Neocate Infant Parent Guide – Español, we created a How to Mix Neocate video for our NeocateUS YouTube channel! 

We hope you find this video useful!  For even more detailed instructions, or for any additional questions, please contact our Nutrition Specialists at nutritionservices@nutricia.com or 1-800-NEOCATE. 

Do you find these resources helpful?  What other kinds of resources and videos would you like to see?

-Sarah  

This weekend, January 21^st– 24^th, we will be exhibiting at the 35^thannual Clinical Nutrition Week 2012 (CNW 12) in Orlando, Florida.

CNW, hosted by the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.), is a three-and-a-half day conference with educational workshops for physicians, dietitians, nurses, pharmacists, educators and researchers who practice in the area of clinical nutrition.

Every year we look forward to coming face-to-face with the physicians, dietitians, nurses, pharmacists and researchers and helping them improve patient care.  This is our time to demonstrate how we are advancing the science and practice of nutrition support therapy through our Neocateproducts and services. 

This year we are especially excited to promote our newest product — Neocate® Junior with Prebiotics, Vanilla!  As we’ve mentioned before on the blog Neocate® Junior with Prebiotics, Vanilla is the first and only flavored amino acid-based medical food with soluble prebiotic fiber for children with GI conditions.

We’ll be sure to keep you posted on all of the fun and exciting things we hope to learn this weekend!  And, if you’re interested in learning more about A.S.P.E.N. and the CNW conference, check out their website and for the latest news updates, announcements and events Like them on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/nutritioncare.org) and follow them on Twitter (@ASPENWEB). 

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

As you know at Nutricia we love to hear from our customers and we’ve made it easy to contact us via e-mail or phone. But today we’re excited to announce a new way for you connect with us – live online chat!

Our chat allows you to speak with either our Nutrition Specialists or Customer Service representatives. We are here to help answer any questions you have about our products, your child’s nutrition, placing orders, managing your account, and product pricing. Our teams are available from 8:30am-5:00pm EST Monday through Friday to answer your questions.

To get started click the "Buy Neocate" link on the Neocate.com homepage. Once you’re there you’ll see our Live Chat option on the lower left corner of the screen. Once you click on it, we’ll ask for some basic contact information and which department you’d like to speak to and in a few moments you’ll be connected with one of our representatives.

Our goal is to be here for you so that purchasing Neocate for your little one is as easy as possible. If you’ve given our live chat a try, let us know what you think on our Facebook page or below in the comments section!

We look forward to speaking with you soon.

-Christine  

On behalf of all of us here at Nutricia North America, the makers of Neocate, we want to wish you and yours a very happy and healthy new year!