Peptamen

so i got some supplemental/elemental drinks. they are called Peptamen. anyone ever had these?

even though my appetite is way up from where it was, i still have a long way to go to reach a healthy weight again. im eating regular food fairly well, so im only drinking about 1 carton a day cause they are just so nasty and make me feel very bloated and ready to explode. i figure its better than nothing though.

I know this is a fairly old post, but rather than start a new thread, I figured I would just pick up where you left off
To give you guys who don't know me a short lead up to where I am now, here it is. I was diagnosed with CD 8 years ago, been on all the meds, cortisone dependent and tolerant, 20 years old, 5' 8" and have been 104lbs for a long time. So I had a bad exacerbation and ended up in the ER for a week, was released 3 weeks ago. They had me on 60mg IV steroids, now I'm down to 35mg oral prednisone. First two weeks post discharge I was drinking 4x Resource 2.0 per day, no weight gain. I used to drink 6+ Boost 1.0 in addition to meals and wouldn't gain a pound either. Last week I began having 4 Peptamen 1.5 elemental nutrition (pre-digested stuff) per day. Sure I have been on steroids (hence water retention) for a while, but I was not gaining an ounce before the Peptamen. In the past week, since I started having the Peptamen 1.5, I've gained 3 pounds; today I weigh 107lbs. The first 2 weeks also consisted of cortifoam every night, and the next few weeks (still now) Cortenema every night. I forgot in that lead-up, sorry, I am supposed to be going for surgery in fall/winter. We will see how that all goes. Maybe I won't need it, not sure, in either case I am ready for it and actually excited.
The Peptamen sucked (taste) to begin with, but now it's not that bad. Once you get past the first few it's smooth sailing from there. I started by mixing 50/50 with the Resource 2.0, then just moved over to the Peptamen cans alone.
I found this article on the net. Interesting read...
http://journals.lww.com/jpgn/Fullte...trition__The_Neglected_Primary_Therapy.3.aspx

Here's the link for Peptament 1.5:
http://www.nutrition.nestle.ca/en/our_products/complete_element_nutrition/peptamen_1_5

By the way I have no affiliation with Peptamen 1.5 or Nestle Nutrition or anyone in that area. I'm a young CD patient who has had his life on hold and not been able to gain a pound for years, so you can imagine how grateful I am toward the product. It's essentially saved my life as I see it right now.

kello82 said:

so i got some supplemental/elemental drinks. they are called Peptamen. anyone ever had these?

even though my appetite is way up from where it was, i still have a long way to go to reach a healthy weight again. im eating regular food fairly well, so im only drinking about 1 carton a day cause they are just so nasty and make me feel very bloated and ready to explode. i figure its better than nothing though.

Click to expand...

I wanted to try them but I can't get insurance to cover them. I did a ton of research on them and the efficacy rates are as high as being on corticosteroids. Of course, those results came from patients only drinking the drinks, not combining the drinks with food.

I just priced both of them yesterday, and they are so damn expensive! :'(

I would love to try them out as the 'symptom' I hate most above the pain etc of crohns is the weight loss

Apparently, my Mum told me there are groups that can help towards the cost of medical things needed (I'm not sure if these will fall into the category of 'essential') BUT I'm going to try my luck with them.

Yeah they are pretty darn expensive at around $12 a can. Right now I'm paying for them but we usually get our insurance to give in eventually lol. Apparently you even need an RX for it, you can't get them without one from what I hear.

Amazon has both Vivonex and Peptamen available at competitive prices. Modulen IBD is available thru a British online pharmacy, although shipping really increases the price. If you google "ucsf gastroenterology crohns vivonex peptamen" you'll come up with a wonderful, concise description of the nutritional peculiarities of CD patients as well as a short description of many of the nutritional/enternal/elemental products available commercially.

My son drank 8 Peptamen a day for 6 weeks, while consuming nothing else, not even a stick of gum and they tasted awful to him at first, but he actually grew to like the taste and would have them over ice...and said they tasted like a bad iced coffee.

Our insurance company wasn't going to pay for them, but after 3 or 4 tries, a letter of necessity from the doctor stating that it was his only nutrition during the 6 weeks...now they are and it's about 4K. So, don't give up after the first try.