Enzyme Challenge

Yesterday I called the nurse to see how Sarah was doing and Amy said she was having trouble with her feeds. I asked her what she meant and she described Sarah as having boughts of gagging and gas that really seemed to make her uncomfortable while she was eating. I was shocked because she seemed to be doing so well prior to this report. Amy ordered some medicine for the gas. Since she had been doing so well until now I was pretty upset to hear all this. I don't want her to have to take any medicine that she doesn't need.

Amy seemed to think that Sarah didn't like the Pregestimil (a pre-digested formula they started giving her after they decided she was "dumping"). Will had Pregestimil when he was first born and he hated it too. It smells so bad that I understood his dislike for that formula. Sarah not liking the Pregestimil seemed like a possible reason for the extreme change in her demeanor while she was eating. We tried a few things during her next feeding and determined that it wasn't the Pregestimil after all.

They started her on the powder enzyme, Viokase earlier that day. I was pretty excited about this enzyme because I thought it would be easier to give her since they could just put it in her formula. I can't really remember how we gave Will his enzymes but I know they weren't using this powder when Will was a baby. Nell, the nurse in the next shift, thought maybe she didn't like the enzymes. So for this next feeding we split the 60mls into two bottles, one with 20ml of formula and the enzymes and the other with 40ml of plain formula. She choked and gagged when I gave her the bottle with enzymes and drank the plain formula down without a problem.

After this, we realized she liked the Pregestimil, (which I thought she'd absolutely despise), but couldn't stomach the enzymes. When I went home I immediately Googled "Viokase and taste". One website described Viokase as "so vile that my daughter wouldn't eat her food if it was sprinkled on it". Another said it is a medicine they use for animals and it's malt or meat flavored so the animals will like it. I couldn't find any websites to confirm or deny that the Viokase they use for animals is the same as for humans. But after this I thought we definately have to do something to make it better for Sarah.