Freaking out

bliss611

I haven't been on the boards for a while but need some calming down...

DS is 13 months AA and almost 14 months real age. He was born 3.5 weeks early - no health issues but very small. They didn't say it was IUGR but he was "small for gestational age" (under 5%ile).

Since then he has continued to have slow weight gain - he is around 2%ile at the moment (for real age). But he is otherwise healthy and is very, active and has no development issues even based on real age.

In any case, he had trouble digesting dairy proteins and had some issues with acidity and was on Alimentum formula and Prevacid since he was 2 months old. We weren't happy with his gastroenterologist so we went to a new one to discuss trying milk and weaning him off Prevacid.

The doc gave us the ok to try milk and wean off prevacid but got concerned about DS weight and growth. He wants all kinds of bloodwork (thyroid, celiac, and much more) done and a xray of his hand to check for growth. He really scared us.

I'm honestly not sure if I want to put DS through all this. But I'm not sure what to make of it all either.

Anyone have similar experience/situation? Any word of advice?

Oh - the regular pediatrician would like to see DS gain more weight but hasn't raised any of these concerns. Mostly because I am very thin and very low on the weight percentiles myself.

JakesBride07

I have no advice about your situation, but I can tell you that I can understand your hesitation to put your DS through all the testing. That I can relate to but for different reasons.

((hugs))

witt0198

If he's been growing consistantly and following his own curve, I don't think I'd freak out. If he wants to look into a few non invasive things that probably wouldn't hurt, but at the end of the day, some of us are just smaller/thinner. If he'd stopped growing or was falling on the charts, I'd personally be more concerned.

My Evan was FTT and had dropped on the charts and stopped growing, he had 2 upper GI's, a head CT, a milk scan, an endoscopy and sigmoidoscopy with biopsies, was tested for cystic fibrosis, had multiple blood and stool tests, an R&C, US of his kidneys, a RAST test for allergies........I think there's more, but I honestly can't remember anymore. They ALL came back normal. They did still tell us something though, what wasn't wrong. I think I would have fought harder to dispute some of the tests in hind sight.

I guess my best advice is to stay informed, question, question question, and even if that means asking for a second opinion, do it. You won't regret, gathering more information.

kloc2006

My preemie is my huge child who is actually catching up to her big brother.  (They are almost 3 years apart, and are both wearing 2T and 3T clothes!) Her brother, who was born at 40+ weeks and was 8lbs 4 oz. at birth, is now the one having growth issues.  So, I know it is not the same scenario, but I thought I could comment on the testing for growth issues.

My son is below the 3% for height.  I had been worried about it for the past year, but the doctors didn't seem concerned.  Finally, at his 4 year check-up they decided to do bloodwork  and the hand x-ray.  I just wanted to let you know that it is very non-invasive testing.  I think the bloodwork involved about 3 vials of blood.  The hand x-ray was super quick and easy.  In our case, everything came back normal.  They say he will just be a late bloomer.

I hope you find some answers and some peace of mind.