Failure to Thrive - Tuck's brother
I cannot belive that I have to post something about my second little boy but here goes. When my second was born, he was 7lbs, 11 oz. He nursed well but didn't gain.
We had weekly weigh-ins and he seemed to be doing a little better with gaining by the time that he was around 2 months.
At his 4 month appt, he was only in the 10th percentile for both height and weight, weighing in at 11 and a half pounds. The Doctor wasn't too concerned since he was still trending well.
Since then, he's been getting three meals of veggies or fruits a day, nurses in the morning and evening, sometimes again during the night and has three 5 oz bottles of milk at school. He's become extremely constipated over the past four weeks so he's also been getting a 1oz water with 1oz of prune or pear juice 2x/day for the past three or so weeks (which isn't helping at all really).
His 6 month appt was today and he DID NOT GAIN A SINGLE F-ING OUNCE! WTF?!
We're doing a blood panel to have his thyroid checked and to have him tested for Celiac Disease since my husband has it. I'm freaking out, I have to say.
The Dr wants us to stop the juice, get him back on cereal (which I stopped because I thought it was worsening the constipations) and increase the cereal to around 1/4 cup a day, in addition to mixing with veggies or whatever.
Anyone have any other suggestions? I sometimes have to supplement his expressed milk for school if I don't pump enough at work so I'm going to switch to a high calorie formula but other than those few things, I don't know what else to do.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Re: Failure to Thrive - Tuck's brother
We had constipation issues w/ our DS on the rice cereal so we fed him oatmeal cereal instead.
My only other thought is to feed less fruits/veggies and more formula/milk. It is not that common to already be on 3 solid food meals a day by 6 months. Many people are just introducing the purees or cereals at 6 months, or are doing only 1 meal/day. Plus, the fruits/veggies really don't have much in the way of calories when compared to milk/formula.
I hope all of the testing comes back okay, and that this is just a little hiccup in his weight gain. Good luck!
I feel your pain! DD has been congested for the better part of the past 3 months (shortly after starting daycare). Her appetite decreases when she is congested and we struggle to get the calories in her. I know you breastfeed and sometimes supplement with formula--we only use formula and we are feeding her a 24 cal/ounce ratio (increasing each ounce by 4 calories). I agree with pp--get him to drink as much as possible and limit the solids to once/twice a day. In our case, DD will only consume so much formula before she quits, so we have to back each feeding up with solids to get the calories needed. Also like the pp, we use the oatmeal cereal. DD likes it better than rice and it doesn't seem to constipate her. When we feed her solids, we feed her ones with the highest number of calories. Most are fruits and fruit mixes. Unfortunately veggies have very few calories so she doesn't get them as often as I would like, but right now, calories are most important. I can give you a list of the ones we found with 80-110 calories per serving if you want.
We are also having the blood panel done to see if that is an issue (although in our case, the pedi really feels it is due to the congestion). I did feel a lot better after we went to the cardiologist yesterday to check on her VSD and he was not that concerned with her weight. She is still on the charts (but just hanging in there at the 3rd percentile). She keeps growing longer though and her head growth is normal, so he thinks she is just one of those kids that is naturally thin and the congestion affecting her appetite is just not helping at this time.
Good luck. I know how deperately frustrating it is to deal with low weight.
I love this board for FTT
https://community.babycenter.com/groups/a118605/failure_to_thrive
Support and info there are ladies w/ kids only a few months old to ones that a few yrs old and there are all kinds of reason for the FTT and many who have no known reason and then others like me that have no formal DX, but is worried and thinking it's only a matter of time.
lots of posts to lurk through and get some info and of course to ask questions.
also there is a gluten board
https://community.babycenter.com/groups/a622035/gluten-free
Max 4-08-08 and Michael 2-03-91 (19 years olds)
Got the blood panel back - Thyroid = normal. And, no gene for Celiac.
Great news but now stumped. Why so small, wee one??