Oral Budesonide, a Steroid Medication, Mixed with Neocate Nutra
For those of you who are not familiar with Neocate Nutra, it is the first and only hypoallergenic, amino acid-based semi-solid medical food. It contains essential vitamins and minerals to promote balanced nutrition in children and infants over 6 months of age with cow milk allergy, multiple food allergies, eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), short bowel syndrome (SBS) and malabsorption.
While an elemental diet or an elimination diet can be used to manage EoE, sometimes steroids are used. At this time, no medication has FDA approval for management of EoE. Steroids, like oral budesonide, have been shown to be effective in managing EoE for more than half of patients. However, steroids may not be the best long-term solution for everyone. Children and adults who use steroids for EoE may mix the medication recommended by their physician with something that causes it to thicken, so it can help to coat the esophagus with the steroid.
The original research of oral steroids for the management of EoE used a powdered artificial sweetener that contains sucralose to mix with liquid medication. However, some families prefer to limit or not use artificial sweeteners. Between June 2008 and June 2013 researchers in the Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disorder program at Boston Children’s Hospital conducted research. Their study showed that oral budesonide mixed with Neocate Nutra is as effective as oral budesonide mixed with Splenda at managing EoE in children.
The researchers in Boston concluded that Neocate Nutra is an effective and palatable mixing agent to create a thick budesonide mixture for families who prefer not to use the recipe that calls for a powdered artificial sweetener. The cost of the mixture when using an artificial sweetener vs. Neocate Nutra is comparable.
Please visit this link to see the research abstract for the Boston Children’s Hospital study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24821535
If you would like to know the recipe for mixing oral budesonide with Neocate Nutra that was used in the team’s research, ask your healthcare professional. If they don’t have the recipe, they can contact our Nutrition Specialists for a copy of the recipe or for more information.
-Kathleen Smith, RDN, LDN
-Rob McCandlish, RDN
Reference: Rubinstein E, Lee JJ, Fried A, Lofvineneko, T, Ngo P, McDonald D, Hait EJ. 2014. Comparison of delivery vehicles for viscous budesonide to treat eosinophilic esophagitis in children [Abstract] Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 59(3):317-20.
Last updated July 30, 2019
