Clinical experience with a hydrolyzed soy formula in infants with protracted enteritis and atopic eczema

A lactose-free soy and beef hydrolysate based formula ("Pregomin" Milupa) was studied in 12 infants affected with protracted enteritis and in 10 infants affected with atopic eczema. After 1 month of treatment with "Pregomin" an oral provocation test was performed using intact soy protein. The aim of this latter test was to evaluate if the hydrolysed soy formula could cause allergic sensitization to soy protein. We obtained the following results in the group of infants with enteritis: good catch-up growth, malnutrition laboratory test improvement, negative allergic tests, positive oral provocation test in only one infant who had been previously fed with intact soy protein. In the group with atopic eczema we found an improvement of the eczema, negative allergic tests, 3 out of 9 positive oral provocation tests (in infants previously fed with soy protein based formulas). Our data show that "Pregomin" formula was effective both from a gastroenterological point of view and from an allergological one. Furthermore we did not observe any positive oral provocation test with soy protein in infants who had never been exposed to this type of protein. The latter result seems to demonstrate that "Pregomin" formula does not possess any allergenic properties.