I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with Doucal (or anything like it). Maeve was sick the past few days and really couldn't tolerate her feeds. Her ped. suggested giving her formula prepared at "regular" strength for 24 hours (she normally gets Nutramigen @ 28 cal/oz.). Since we tried that she has not gagged or vomitied once! She even slept all night through her feed. I've heard that duocal doesn't change the viscosity (sp?) of formula and I'm wondering if that might be better for her than concentrating her formula. She never had any vomiting problems prior to about 2 months of age which is when they concentrated her formula (right after her heart surgery). I've always wondered if there was a connection...
Any input you all have would be great, I'm trying to get some more info. before I call the GI (who will not be our GI much longer!! :evil: ).
Thanks!
Megan

I don't have any experience with it actually but it might not be a bad idea to ask your ped about it. The concentration definitely has everything to do with how much she gags and vomits...at least it does for Shae. When she was born she went from being on regular strength to 22 cals/oz, then up to 24 cals/oz then finally to 27 (28, can't remember) cals/oz and during those few months continued to go downhill, getting worse and worse all the time until I finally clued in that the weaker the formula, the better she did. It got to the point that she was puking every 20 minutes or more all day and all night for a week or more straight so I would dilute the formula to about half strength and she would be a different kid. Slowly, I'd try to increase the cals/oz and eventually found a happy medium at 22 cals/oz, that's where she's been for about two years now...she still throws up but not non-stop...any lower though and she wouldn't get the cals that she needs each day.

Do you have a dietician or nutritionist that works with you that you could call instead of the GI, he doesn't sound very helpful?

That's really interesting, Roni. We've been told by Evan's dietician (and others, including his ped.) that thickening his food and liquids will help his reflux not to be so bad. They've even told us that thickening things seems to help most refluxers. Like you, we found the exact opposite. The thicker the food, the more he vomits.