Hello again! We recently were seen by a G.I. doctor for my 21 month old son for talk about a G tube. Anyways his doctor said he wants to stear clear from any other surgeries for my lil guy (he was born with a cleft palate and had it repaired like 9 months ago...) So he was never on the growth chart for weight (due to feeding issues and cleft) but always followed his on curve. He pretty much plateaued and thats why we spoke with the G.I. doc about a possible G tube. Anyways he wasnt us to try this power called Duocal. I have actually already started him on it. I just wanted to see if anyone was successful with there childs weight gain with this Product. Thanks so much for all ur help.
Hi K., if you see no improvment in gaining wight, please call me and talk to my friend, her child was critical loosing weight every day.
A. ###-###-####.
Yes, we are using Duocal for one of my daughters. My twins girls were born at 26 weeks and one has had significant reflux and weight gaining issues. We worked closely with our GI doctor (Dr. Yinka Davies) in order to avoid the feeding tube. It was much harder on us, but we have been successful. She is now 33 months and we still give her two bottles a night with a high calorie formula to put the weight on her. We only use Duocal if we give her water, 1 scoop/4 oz of water. You can also mix it into food or other beverages. We use BeneCalorie which has a much higher number of calories and we use that product in a variety of ways. We also buy Resource Breeze juice and has 250 calories and 9 grams of protein in it. With solid foods, we avoid the low-fat and non-fat versions of most foods and actually shop looking for the highest number of calories in items. Please feel free to contact me if you want more information on what we have done to put the weight on our daughter. Good luck.
Yep add us to your list of Duocal and Dr. Davies patients. My guy is now almost 26 months old and has GERD, failure to thrive, VATER Syndrome and many other issues that lead him to be totally off the growth chart. We dealt with the GJ Tube, turned into the GTube and are using the Boost for Kids formula 1.5cal, give Colin Duocal with bottles, foods, etc., and watch him be a busy little guy who doesn't realize he has medical issues. The Duocal I think is a great helper to add calories to his bottles and food - sometimes he appears to not like the taste but so long as I put it in his bottle without him seeing, he doesn't act any differently.
I'm glad your GI doc is not so hip on the Gtube argument. I find it more trouble than what it is worth but argue with the drs on it and yuck! So, if your dr is pushing Duocal and high calorie formulas - follow him and your little one will do just fine.
Any other thoughts or questions do not hesitate to stay in touch.
T.
We are giving our son Scandical which the nutritionist (also at Dr. Davies)said is about the same. I think it is 35 cal per tbls. We put it in his water, which he loves to drink and doesn't even know it's there. I have tried it in apple sauce and there doesn't seem to be a difference in flavor. However, he's been in the 18 lb range since he was 13 months old and is now 17 months and just weighed 8.8lbs. We've been on a super high cal diet for the last 2 months with little change. I don't think the powder alone will do it, but your situation sounds different from ours. My son has been to a specialist (GI) but they haven't found any reason for the lack of weight gain. If your son can drink juice, they make a super high calorie juice called "Resource Boost" that has over 250 cal per juice box. We researched a little online and found the company and they make several other high cal drinks for kids. Good luck!
hi K.,
i am a pediatric nurse and have taken care of many children who are supplemented with duocal----and yes over time most are successful in weight gain. good luck!
I've never used it but you might want to talk to your dr about celiac diesease or gluten intolerance if your son is having that much trouble gaining weight. Sometimes, when children have a condition like cleft pallet, dr's blame the condition for everything that happens rather than continuing to search for the underlying problem.
Kids with celiac often have problems gaining weight, they can be irritable, get tired easily, and may have rashes/eczema. They can have constipation OR diarrhea. It is a genetic condition so you may see symptoms in one or both parents and grandparents such as digestive problems, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, thyroid problems (often undiagnosed) canker sores, fatigue, AD/HD, depression, any autoimmune conditions. You can search symptoms on the interenet. There are many!
It can be controlled by removing gluten from the diet. Gluten is in wheat, barley, rye and some other grains.
The condition is more prevalent than doctors tend to believe and therefore not enough people are tested. It takes people an average of about 11 years to get a proper diagnosis. It is complicated but might be worth asking. Take care!
Hi there! My daughter is now 5, but we used Duocal for her when she was about a year old. She is a former micropreemie and has had major feeding issues and growth issues. For us, Duocal did not do much...we have tried just about everything.
We used Duocal & it worked wonders. It was a while ago but I think my son gained 1.5 lbs in a week! It wasn't just Duocal though. Instead of giving a bottle of milk, we mixed the milk w/ a full serving of formula powder so it doubled up the calories, fed him ice cream, put butter in his food ... whatever we could to add calories. I'm not sure if the price of Duocal came down, but if not and your insurance doesn't cover it, it's expensive. Ck out eBay.
