Switching from premature formula

Ashley - posted on 05/03/2010

my daughter is on enfimal enifcare 22cal..... she just turn 13 mths and we are still waiting on the ok to take her offf it

Kelly - posted on 05/03/2010

My baby was born at 32 weeks, the NICU started him on NEOSURE by Similac but they quickly changed him to Enfacare. Since we have been home he has had horrible gas & spit ups. Our pediatrician told us that normally no one switches formulas until at least 6 months. Our baby had since began projectile vomiting all of his meals. So we contacted our doctor and she put him on Zantac & added rice cereal to his feedings. This worked for about a week. We ended up at our local childrens hospital because of this. They suggested we try a gentler formula. So I made the executive decision of starting our son on Enfamil Gentlease with a tablespoon of rice cereal mixed in. He has become a whole new baby. He burps better, isnt as gassy, and just much more peaceful. No more fussy baby, plus he sleeps better now too. I would talk to your doctor but I highly recommend Gentlease.

Gina - posted on 12/15/2009

Usually they would want the baby on the premie formula until they have reached 12 pounds

Lindsay - posted on 10/01/2009

When we were discharged from the NICU, my daughter was getting pumped breast milk. We were told by the dietician to mix 3 teaspoons of Enfamil Enfacare (22 cal)-which can be bought at any grocery or drugstore- with 2 oz of breastmilk. This would increase the calorie content of the breastmilk. Our daughter was also a very gassy baby, but we were told to just gradually introduce more formula into the milk (start with less and work up to 3 tsp). We were also told by the dietician to not switch her formula, that once her immature digestive system got used to the formula, she would stop being gassy, and she did. But that switching her formula could upset her tummy more.

You should switch to regular formula when your baby is 9-12 months adjusted age. We switched at 9 months adjusted b/c our daughter had completely caught up on weight gain.

We just missed the income cut off for WIC, but they were willing to get us whatever formula we needed, we just needed our pediatrician to write a "prescription" for it. Ours gladly wrote us one, but then we didn't need it.

Hope some of this helped!

Molly - posted on 09/30/2009

my son did the same thing with the enfamil, try the similac i think its called neosure its a premature one to i think its yellow, plus i would try and burp him for at least 4-5 min, and i used that mylicon gass relief but ask your dr first about that...

Diana - posted on 09/30/2009

We used Neosure for the first few months when supplementing formula, but we now use Enfamil, and he seems to like it just as much. My ped says there's not much difference between them all, and that as long as I'm not jumping from soy to milk base constantly his tummy will be fine. So I think it just depends on your baby-you may have to try a few to find what she likes.

Also-per your question about breastmilk-always mix the formula with water, not breastmilk. This will keep it from becoming overly concentrated. My doc said it was fine to mix the breastmilk with the already made formula, especially if the baby doesn't like the formula taste, but my son has never eaten anything he didn't like. lol We chose not to mix it, because in the beginning my son didn't alway seat a whole meal, and we wanted to be sure he was getting all of the good stuff from the breastmilk first-but it won't hurt to mix it like they do in the NICU.

Chelle - posted on 09/28/2009

I didn't know WIC was contracted w/ Nestle.........................I used WIC with my son and everyone I know who uses it gets similac for their babies. If they needed something else you had to have a doctors note. My son too was on NeoSure til he was about 5 months. He stayed on that til the doctor said he could come off it and go onto the normal similac. He ended up on alimentum though due to GERD and a milk protein allergy.

Iysha - posted on 09/28/2009

My baby's pediatrition said that all formulas are pretty much the same with exceptions to the soy kind...because it's soy and there are no milk products. =] He also said that gas, more often then not comes from crying before eating. I guess more air gets sucked into the stomach and causes the baby to have more gas than if they didn't cry and just sucked. I read that in a book too. idk... it sounded convincing to me. I notice now that I wake up to my baby's sounds rather than her crying, and she doesn't get gassy at 6 am, every morning now.



I found that burping my baby after every ounce seemed to help with her spitting up. even if she didn't burp, I would stop her at 1-2 ounces then continue.



Your child's pediatrition should tell you when you should switch from preemie formula to term formula. The child needs to be pretty much on the dot with his/her growth. Meaning up to a full term baby's weight and height and gaining weight consistantly.



I was told not to give babies formula and breastmilk mixed together.... to give the breast milk and formula seperate at feedings.

Sarah - posted on 09/27/2009

I had my daughter on something called Neosure. It's made by similac and it's 22 cal. I had her on it for about 6 months after she came home from the hospital and then I tried different formulas. I tried regular similac and I found she spit up a lot and then I tried enfamil and I found it made really gassy and found it stained really bad if she spit it up so finally I switched to goodstart and that's what she stayed on until she was 12 months corrected when we switched her to whole milk.

You should contact the NICU that your daughter was in and ask to talk to their dietician. It was the dietician at our NICU that told me how to mix the preemie the formula and let me know when I could switch her to regular formula. I'm not really sure about your question about mixing the breastmilk because I never breastfed but I'm sure the NICU dietician or even just your daughters doctor would be able to tell you. Good luck!