Hi all

Anyone know anything about AR thickened formulas? Alicia is currently on Karicare HA (Hypo allergenic) and they advertise on the tin that they have a HA - AR which is thickened with carob bean gum.

Alicia goes ok, but often up to 15 minutes later she just quietly brings up little bits of milk and spit. Normally nothing major, just a bibs worth, sometimes more.

I'm happy with how she is, but if she's going to keep more of the AR thickened formula down then it would be worth trying.

TIA

I breastfeed so can't really help, but I did read on EB somewhere that it's better t thicken the formula yourself as the already thickened preparations can sometimes be a bit too thick.

I went through the same thing with my DD. I changed to the AR and found it was too thick (DD couldnt drink it through the bottle) so I ended up throwing it out and going back to the old formula.

You could try buying the Karicare thickener to add to your formula. I think its about $8 for the can. That way if it doesnt work you havent wasted a whole tin of formula.

DD eventually grew out of the relux thing at around 5 months and havent really had a problem since.

Good luck

Hi JaneN

My daughter Sarah is 6 mths old and has been on Karicare AR for 2 months now. She still brings up a bit of milk but so much less than on regular formula. I saw my paed. today about weaning her off Zantac and he said keep her on thickened formula for a bit longer - it does help lessen the amount she vomits - we have at least one very wet bib each feed and prob another one when she wakes up as still vomitting. She never got constipated and I just used the variable Avent teats so it flowed easily.

Hope this helps

Cheers
Trace

DD was FF from 4 weeks old.

I ended up putting her on AR formula, and got really frustrated that the formula was too thick for the holes in the teats.
I tried just about everything imaginable to enlarge the teat holes but nothing worked.

I eventually discovered the Avent variable flow teats were great for AR formula. The teats have a slit, rather than holes.
Avent will probably fit pigeon and some other bottles, as I remember trying different brands of teats in my Avent bottles.

Pigeon teats fit Avent bottles, but Avent teats wont fit Pigeon bottles properly.

we had to go onto an AR formula too - DS brought up sooo much milk on normal formula. We went with the Novalac AR it thickens once it hits the stomach so he has no probs drinking it with his slow-flow teats. He still refluxes a little bit with it, especially if I do feed, play, sleep (he's very active at play time) but if I feed him right before bed he will keep it down.

Hi,

We have used the HA-AR formula for ages and have just weaned back to the HA. I found that you do need to use a fast flow teat for the formula. It does need to be made up only when needed as the longer it is sitting made up, the thicker it gets. As pp's have said the avent variable flow teats are good for thickened formulas too.

Melissa