TriciaJoy

Mrs. Destructo

How is Robbie doing these days? I've been thinking about your little fella.  hope he's eating better.

TriciaJoy

Not so great on the eating front, I'm afraid.

 

The pedi has me adding olive oil to his solids and feeding solids as often as 3x/day. He still hates the bottle and has to be falling asleep to eat.

Even in his sleep he'll barely eat anything. Which is killing me, honestly. He'll eat 20 or 30 cc then refuse more. So he's up hungry every 90 minutes through the night. i'm so tired that I'm almost delirious. (oh and my husband says he won't get up at night because he works full time. Don't get me started.)

The weight gain has improved with the olive oil.. but I'm not sure how I feel about him getting so many calories from that versus nutrition in milk. I'm going to call for a referral to a nutritionist. (the GI's office is closed today, so I'll call tomorrow.)

 

You're so sweet to ask.
honestly, I know we're so lucky he doesn't have other lasting medical issues.. but this feeding thing is killing me.

ijack

I've been thinking about you too, I'm sorry it's not going better We see a nutritionist next week, and I've been wondering the same thing about fat. I know our issue isn't anything like yours but they have E on this high fat diet and I hate that most of her calories come from sour cream, cheese and butter. Seriously, sour cream?? I know everyone says fat is important, but aren't fruits and veggies too?

TriciaJoy

ijack.. you'll have to let me know how it goes.

Fat is good for their brains- but so are vitamins and minerals, you know?

I asked our GI doc the last time I was there how much milk (this was before we really started solids) he needed to protect his brain development and she said 100ml/kilo. Some days he doesn't take that much milk. He still gets calories and fats.. but I"m not sure how they all goes together.

I really feel like we're going to end up with a G tube again. I hate to put him through it and hate to deal with it again, but at this point I think I'd breathe a sigh of relief. I feel like I'm at war.

 

Mrs. Destructo

Oh gosh, I'm so sorry to hear that it isn't getting better. It sounds like he is doing well with the solids - does that mean his docs won't consider a feeding tube?

TriciaJoy

At this point it's on hold. Our pedi is hoping we can limp along with crappy weight gain until he can take more and more solid food and he'll outgrow it. I'm not sure i"m convinced it's going to happen but we'll try.

preemieparent

Tricia - sorry to hear things aren't any better.

In terms of milk - have you tried adding some to the solids that you are giving him?  It won't amount to a lot but I always go by the rule of "a little is better than none."   You could add dry milk - that would be less of a texture difference but still adding calcium.

I'll ask my mom (a dietician) if she has any nutrition suggestions.   Can you tell me what he is eating in a normal day right now?  That will help my mom make suggestions.

 Take care - Debbie

TriciaJoy

PP- I add breastmilk to his cereal.

 

Right now he's taking anywhere from 12-16 (usually around 13) oz of plain breastmilk (we've yet to find any formula we can have that doens't make him scream in agony)

Then twice a day solids.. sometimes a third. It all depends on how he eats. I offer the bottle first, then if I can't get any (or say more than an ounce) into him, I go to solids. Mostly I try to get him to sleep to get him to eat.

His solids are a mix of:

2 1/2 tbls oat cereal
30ml breastmilk
1 tsp olive oil

A few days a week I try a vegetable or fruit. So far he's only had avocado (he just isn't a big fan) and banana (which he liked but he spit up each time he had it, so I'm not sure it settles well.)

I'd like to ask the nutritionist about substituting one of the olive oil doses with maybe some duocal. At least it has some nutrition.

Oh.. and he currently weighs 10lb 1oz.