Eating Question (turned into questions)

ashk7

DD was born at 31 weeks due to IUGR. She is only fed breastmilk, I EP we could never make the full transition to EBF but that's for another post lol. My question is about 3 weeks ago we started her on reflux meds, thy seemed to be working great! Symptoms lessened and she was eating 4 ounce bottles. We went for our 4 month well and shots about two weeks after starting meds dr was happy with results and weight gain she is up to 9lbs! Now we are a week out of shots and she is barely eating 3 ounces and it's a struggle some bottles to get her to take 2!!! She is happy, peeing and pooping normal, her normal self other then the amount she is eating and showing some signs or reflux again. For example gagging towards end of bottle and spitting up randomly, maybe once a day if that. But her symptoms are few and far between. Ok sorry I am long winded, my question is, should I be concerned about the amount she eats if otherwise acting normal and continuing to gain weight? She is continuing to gain and grow on her own curve, has never lost weight since being DC in April. Am I obsessing over the amount because the NICU kinda made you focus on that, or at least ours did, or should I be worried. She is 10 weeks adjusted. I know all babies are different but it seems like she is really on the low end of how much she eats. It may of been a perfect storm of reflux meds and growth spurt. But after eating that much is it normal to decrease again? Also could her reflux meds need adjusting already? Ok sorry that turned into 10 questions and a lot of rambling as I was thinking and typing! TIA ladies!! 

Kadyra

If she's gained weight and they didn't adjust her dose of reflux meds, that could be your problem. I'm told they sometimes need to be adjusted weekly because of rapid weight gain. I'd call and ask for a weight check and a new Rx. 

ashk7

Thanks ladies! I went in yesterday and they said her dosage was fine and she had gained about 5 ounces, in 8 days, not a huge amount but not losing. We are actually going back today she is only eating like an ounce every hour. It makes no sense to me no fever, not fussy, peeing at every change, not a huge soaked diaper but def wet. She is her happy smiling self, but when she eats she starts taking the bottle then will start gagging, pushing it out with her tounge and hands and just get real uncomfortable, I am burping her regularly, keeping her upright for at least 30 mins after a feed. We were not able to see our regular pedi yesterday but I really just wanted a weight check and to talk dosage. We will see what our regular dr has to say DH and I are headed there now. 

st.augbride

Ds was also IUGR and had the same issues early on. Things didn't get better with eating (and I also only EPed) until he was on prevacid. Which reflux med are you on? I only ask b/c zantac did nothing. Also, we ultimately did have to increase the prevacid dose at about 6-7 months. It became obvious when we saw more reflux signs after starting solids, but the higher dose immediately helped and he's been on it since. Now at 18.5 months, we just tried stopping it, but he showed reflux signs again so back on he went! Guess we'll try again in a few months. Ds definitely fluctuated sometimes with his eating, and we were super neurotic and recording everything for a very, very long time! But he was going to do what he was going to do! He also never lost weight and gained along his own curve. Not until more recently did he start increasing in weight percentiles (up to 10th). Height has been great and he's now 50th-75th which is amazing. If your LO is growing well and the reflux is well controlled, then only worry about the amount they're eating if it brings you peace of mind to monitor it. Otherwise, no need!