AR Formula?

Ruby has turned out to be a HUGE vomiter. So far she seems largely unphased by it (just the odd occasion where it's upset her - 99% of the time she doesn't make a peep about it) and she's only projectile vomited a couple of times. So for the most part, this tells me she is a "happy chucker" like Jacob was, just on a much greater level (and I used to complain about how much he vomited - eeek!)

Anyway, Ruby is gaining weight well - 600g in a fortnight and has grown 4cm. So she isn't suffering for all the vomiting she is doing.

Thing is, the CHN has recommended that we trial her on an AR Formula to see if this helps.....has anybody else tried this at all where their baby doesn't actually have painful reflux and has it helped? Do they take more or less in a feed when compared with normal formula?

Mel the way it works is that when it hits the heat of bub's stomach it expands & becomes thicker making it sit better in their tummies. You know about Zander's reflux & for him it did't make much difference. BUT for one of the kids at my mum's group it worked fantastically. She was 12wks prem & her reflux was similar to Ruby's in that it didn't hurt her, her body just wasn't working properly cos she was so early. As far as I can remember she took as much from the bottle as the rest of the kids did.

Also don't forget that the AR formula must be made up with room temperature or chilled boiled water and not heated. Once it's heated it thickens & you don't want it thickened until it hits their tummy. I confirmed that with the manufacturer as well as with our GP & ECHN.

I've made it up with room temperature water and put it in the fridge, as well as water from the fridge, but it's thick already?!

It gets even thicker if you heat it or use warm water.

They say you shouldn't blend formulas... but my maternal nurse said it wasn't so bad what I did. She said AR & the normal formula are the same, but AR has an extra ingredient that thickens it up.

My son wasn't a bad vomiter... but bad colic.
I would put one third AR formula to two thirds normal formula.
ie: in a 180ml bottle I would put one scoop of AR and two scoops of normal formula.
This was the SAME BRAND though.

It seemed to work well for my son. It thickened it up, without being too thick.

I heat his bottles a little bit to take the chill off them (as I used chilled boiled water). But he has never liked really warm water.

I only recently stopped doing this when all the "gold" formula went on special. But he is 5 months old now and his stomach has really settled.

Hi Melinda!!!!!!!Congrats on the beautiful Ruby.

Lucie was on AR formula. I think it helped a bit with spewiness although she was never overly bad anyway (silent reflux the paed thought). She actually seemed to prefer it to normal formula.

Sorry gotta run....2 screaming babies...........

Matilda was on the Ha-AR formula and we used the water at just above room temp. I would store the bottles in the fridge & when it was time to use them I would heat up the water & add the formula just on giving it to her. So the bottles would have 180mls cooled boiled water in the fridge once sterilised and then I would take them out of the fridge, pop the bottle in the microwave for 20 seconds to take the coolness off them & then add the formula & give it to her straight away.

I found leaving the formula at any temp made it go more thick... so I just decided to make them up as we went. It worked really well for us doing it that way. I often tried to mix up bottles ahead of time but found it just got too thick for us, but maybe we were making them up too warm to start with.

AR formula is only good for 1 hour once made up i think..........

Yeah I noticed it was even thicker once it was warmed up.....

Currently we're making the bottles in advance with cold water straight from the fridge...

It doesn't really seem to be helping her though - it just means that what she brings up is thicker IYKWIM! Poor thing has it coming out her nose and the works......

Still, for the most part she seems unphased by it, but holy cow the volume of it is just astounding.....I've never seen anything like it. Thank god she's gaining weight (goodness knows how!)

im having the same problem melinda he is vomiting on everything its driving me nuts and was thinking of putting him onto the AR formula to see if it helps, i have the MHN tomorrow so im going to see what she says

Yeah it's funny Britney as Jacob was a vomiter too (until about 6 months of age) and it also didn't bother him, but we stuck with normal formula (no one recommended switching anyway).

But with Ruby, her vomiting is on a whole new scale.....the volume of it is just HUGE by comparison to Jacob, so that's why the CHN said to try AR.......

Hey Mel,
Noah was put on the AR. He was a silent chucker of large amounts (out of every possible opening, I think. It took a little while but it did work for him.
We made the bottles up as we went. We heated the water first and then added the formula, that way, it didn't seem too thick.
He stacked on SO much weight though that eventually we weaned him off it, onto normal formula.

Hey Melinda,

We tried Lachlan on the AR formula and he loved it, once the vomiting settled a bit i bought a tin of normal formula and a separate tin of food thickener. that way i can still thicken it but not as much as it was. This way he still keeps it down but hes not packing on the weight that he was either.

Good luck!!

I add the Karicare thickener to EBM for Joel and it doesn't make it any thicker and I warm the EBM bottle from fridge in cup of hot water.I agree with Dee78 - it works anyway.

All mine were reflux babies (runs through the family with almost every single baby in his family having it :eek:.
My first was born at 28 weeks, and he could projectile every single feed up to 1.5 metres away from his poor little body, but would smile his little head off as soon as it came up But as they didnt have the AR formula available here then, he was medicated, and had to have food thickener used. My other 2 suffered the burning screaming silent reflux. My last was put onto AR formula at only a few weeks old when he was hospitilized for the reflux and lack of weight gain.The stress dried all my milk up too :(
I bought a little container (avent have them as well I have seen generic cheaper ones in Woolies as well) which are a little round barrel, with 3 chambers on them. You remove the lid, and scoop 1 bottles worth of the formula into each chamber, then after filling each chamber with 1 feed, put the lid back on. You then just spin the lid around so that the little opening is over one of the litle chambers flip the spouts lid open and shake the formula into the bottle when you need to make the feed up. (great for dads to make up quickly and precisely,,,,or even when being babysat.
This was the only way when we were out and about the make sure that the bottles were not too thick, and were freshly made and safe. It became an absolute lifesaver and saved so much time, as I would just take a twin insulated bottle bag with me, and have one bottle wth boiled hot water in it, and another with half cooled boiled water in it,,,So that it timed well for feeds with the water from both being at the right temp for the feeds when needed.
By about 10 months old, I was able to use the same brand of formula, just in the regular kind, and slowly wean my DS from whole AR, to 3/4 AR and 1/4 normal etc until gradually he was on all normal formula.

savanna i believe is also a silent reflux bubby
she was fine on normal s26 for a couple weeks since birth then started just vomiting heaps out.
my mum suggested trying her on S26 AR and i have not looked back. Although she still brings up a little here and then (mostly when burping). It really has helped making feeding time alot more bearable and easier.
She loves the taste of it too as it tastes like real milk. the s26 gold was horrible!! tasted like fish oil ewwww She hated that one. So im sticking to the AR.
i have tried to give her normal S26 during the day when i have time to sit with her and clean up the mess if she spews. She is ok on it now but i still prefer the AR. She has been having alot of diorrhea (sp?) so ive gone back to AR every feed.

Mackenzie didn't have refulx but did vomit her fomula up so my MCHN suggested we try the HA-AR formula - worked wonders for us. No more vomiting. We premade them up and then warmed them in boiling water when we were ready to use and then when the light came on in our heads we just put the sterilised cold water in the fridge in the bottles and then added the boiling water to make up the bottle and added the formula. I also had to make the hole in the teats bigger as it was taking her too long to feed (40 mins) and once I did that it was only taking 10 minutes.