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Preemies
Failure to thrive?
I couldn't really figure out where to post this so I hope it's okay that I'm here. DS was born full term but he has always had problems eating. He was just diagnosed with failure to thrive. He weighed less today than he did at his 4 month check up. He had some blood work done and we have an appointment with a pediatric nutritionist next week but I was wondering if anyone hear has dealt with this before. Some of the stuff that I've read mentions that it is more common in preemies.
I guess I'm just scared. If you've dealt with this what was the end result? Was there an underlying reason for the FTT? Did LO get back on track weight wise?
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Re: Failure to thrive?
you can also try the special needs board.
My son was FTT. We already knew he had stomach issues as he'd been born with a hiatal hernia and had stomach surgery and puked 20x/day.
In the end, we ended up with a G-tube, but that's pretty uncommon, particularly for a termie.
Sometimes it's just a matter of finding out what's causing reflux, sometimes it's just adding calories. There are options before things get too scary.
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DS#1 was term and diagnosed with this. He fountain vomited every meal. we switched him entirely to solids and heavy whipping cream for calories at 6 months. he did ok but not great. His vomiting turned into explosive diarrhea that we just lived with. 2 years later we stumbled on a diagnosis of lactose intolorence. (he was away for 2 weeks and just happened to not drink any dairy. After many warnings about what his bum would do, he didn't have any blow outs.)
There is usually a reason for FTT. Once you find it, it may be hard but your DS will grow.
What kind of eating problems? My son never quite had a weight problem but severe eating issues for a couple months which made the docs boost his calories hoping the weight wouldn't become an issue. He was a refluxer but not the spitting up kind rather the in pain while eating kind. So the result was he seemed to hate eating and at his worst was only taking increments of 1.5 ounces all day long...which I think then created a bottle aversion because we felt like we always had to be feeding him. It was exhausting and awful. How we got over it- we switch to Neocate hypoallergenic formula just in case a dairy allergy was playing a role, Prevacid in the morning, Zantac at night, added rice cereal to the bottles and polycose for extra calories. So, it was getting 24cal/oz from formula, 3 cal/oz from Polycose, and 2 cal/oz from rice cereal...so almost 30 cal/oz instead of the usual 20.
Thank you for the responses! I didn't even see the special needs board. I'll definitely post over there too.
DS has never spit up. I think it might have happened once or twice early on but it has pretty much been unheard of. He just doesn't eat very much. It doesn't seem to matter what I do - he always eats 15-20 ounces per day (of breast milk only) plus a couple of ounces of solids. He seems happy while eating.
Even though he was full term he seemed to have some common preemie eating problems. First, he didn't realize he was supposed to be sucking. He had very aggressive tongue thrust (he pushed out anything you put in his mouth including a bottle) and he didn't swallow correctly. He kept his mouth really tight and he tucked his bottom lip in while sucking. I was never able to get him to latch on so I have always pumped milk for him. We had to go to a developmental therapist for the first 5 weeks to teach him how to eat better. He got better (but not great). Eventually I just started giving him sippy cups which he took to really well.
Ditto everyone above. Another thing you could look at is the calorie content of your BM. A lactation consultant I saw had an actual machine that calculated the calorie content of my milk, for me it ended up being a sigh of relief that it wasn't the problem.
Do you think he's ready to start introducing solids? I'm not a fan of pushing food on kids, they just tend to push back and eat less, but if he's ready it migh help with the calories.
For my Evan, it was learning what was upsetting his stomach as well. You could try eliminating the common problem causers from your diet and see if it helps....like dairy.
GL
I am pretty sure I read this right -- he is FTT and you're exclusively BF? (with some solids?).
If this is the case I would ask your doctor about increasing his calories. One of my girls had some digestion issues.
I exclusively pumped for her for 3 months -- but in that time mixed formula into the breast milk to increase the calories. She is skinny -- but basically caught up.
I have a friend that is going through the same thing as you -- unknown FTT if you want to email me at johns*at*sasktel.net I can get you in touch with her for some questions / possibilities / tests etc.
DS - 40W6D - Oct 2004
DS - 41W4D - March 2007
GGG - 33W6D - July 2008
Another FTT diagnosis here too
Along with the tests I would ask about adding formula to your BM to increase calories. Some kids do really well with it, some don't eat as much so it doesn't really help, but it's worth a try. Also I would try to add calories to his solid food as well. Even something as simple as a scoop of formula would be greatly beneficial. Also make sure you're serving things like avocado, bananas, etc - food with a little more caloric punch, then just apples and pears.
I'm sorry you're having to deal with this, hugs!
Need help with high fat food ideas? Chunky Monkey