LipiStart

February 2009

When Sarah was 6-months-old, the dietitian wanted us to try weaning Sarah off the elixir and on to Lipistart. This change was not due to Sarah's age but because Lipistart was a newer product and would be easier to use. The dietitian said that other dietitians that collaborate over the Internet were saying that Lipistart was working really well.

Here are my messages to the dietitian because she wanted to know how things were going:


2-6-2009

"Well, I tried just straight up Lipistart and Sarah ate 3 ozs. and then stopped and started fussing. I tried again with the same results. Then I tried a third time (each time was a different feeding) and she only ate 1 oz. then I mixed it with elixir so it was half and half and she drank most of it. So I am now feeding it to her 1/2 and 1/2 and will slowly increase the Lipistart in the mixture over the next few days and see how she reacts. :~)"

2-11-09

"Today, Sarah "chugged" her first full Lipistart bottle. Yeah! :~) My mom said she seemed gassy afterwards but I am thinking that could be because we just switched her over to the fast flow nipples because it seemed like the Lipistart might not be flowing out of the nipples as easily as the elixir did.

"As to her usual volume question she was drinking the same volume on 1/2 Lipistart and 1/2 elixir. I have noticed that her "usual" is changing some because of the solid food. She is drinking slightly less but not enough of a difference that I got concerned. Her usual now is anywhere between 4-8 ounces at one bottle feeding time. I've found it tricky, at times, to schedule the bottle feedings and solid feedings so that she eats a good amount at each. She seems to really like solid food and on one specific occasion refused her bottle but ate solid food and then drank a small amount to wash it down. I figure we can discuss that more at our appointment on the 24th."


It took us about a week to switch Sarah over to all Lipistart. In regards to the bottle nipples, we switched her back to slow or medium flow. While the Lipistart is thicker in consistency than the elixir, Sarah seems much more gassy on the fast nipples.

Lipistart is much easier than the elixir because Lipistart is just one powder. It's like normal formula just with only medium-chain fats instead of long-chain fats. It contains MCT in powder form and this makes it so we can use plastic bottles, if we want to. We can make the amount of bottles we use in a day (3) and store them in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. When it is time to feed Sarah we just take out a bottle and warm it up.