[Treatment of severe cow's milk protein allergy using Neocate]

A hydrolysate of proteins is considered to be adapted to treatment of allergy to cow's milk proteins when it is tolerated by 90% of allergic children. This suggestion implies that 10% of the children who are allergic to cow's milk proteins do not tolerate the preparations based on hydrolysates of proteins and presupposes the case of intolerance or allergy henceforth widely reported. The diagnosis must mention before the existence or the persistence in an infant fed with a hydrolysate of proteins of non-specific clinical signs often attached to more frequent pathologies, such as gastro-oesophageal reflux or colic. Substitution of a hydrolysate by another is one alternative, but the level of residual peptides of protein hydrolysates explains only the cases of severe allergy, the child may show reactions to these residual epitopes. The alternative is use of a formulation based on amino-acids, which allows diagnosis by an elimination-provocation test of protein hydrolysate. An elementary formulation based on amino-acids may permit to await the period of acquisition of tolerance.