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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
PsyDr04
member
Fingers crossed we have discovered the problem
PsyDr04
member
DS has been stuck at around 20.5 pounds for the last several months. He is now 19 months old. He has grown some in height and head circumference, but the weight just isn't happening. We saw a feeding specialist a few times and we were encouraged to try to increase calories by feeding him things like yogurt, cheese, and adding carnation instant breakfast to his milk, all of which we were doing with no effect.
We finally saw a GI doctor about a week and a half ago and DS was scheduled for an upper endoscopy for next week. Last Friday, we went out to eat and DS actually ate a decent amount of food, but shortly after putting him to bed, he began to throw up. This was the third episode of vomiting in less than 3 weeks. The first episode was most certainly a stomach bug since DH and I got it, too. We thought the second episode was stomach bug as well. With the second and third episode of vomiting, however, DS had drank a large amount of milk the day prior in both cases.
After DS throws up, we usually lay off milk for about a day. Based on something the GI doctor said during our appointment, we decided to do an experiment and cut out all milk products entirely, not just for that day but ever since. Since doing so, DS has been eating like a horse! He has never eaten this much food for this many days in a row. It's like he's a bottomless pit. He used to have noticeable and significant bloat in his belly and that has virtually disappeared. His BMs have also gone from being fairly loose to mostly solid. More than that, he seems to be free from tummy pain and is much happier.
We have come to the conclusion that DS has had a milk protein intolerance since birth. He was very gassy as a baby, even though he was exclusively BF for the first 4 months of his life and continued to get some breastmilk until he was around 8 months old. However, he was likely getting some milk proteins through my breastmilk then, even though I am not a big consumer of dairy products myself. When we started supplementing with formula at 4 months, we noticed a decrease in the gassiness. Now that we look back on it, the formula we were giving him (Enfamil Gentlease) has milk proteins that are partially broken down. Coincidence? Probably not.
It is amazing the turnaround that DS has done. We are hopeful that he will now start putting on weight pretty quickly and get back on the growth chart. All this time, the things we were being encouraged to do to help him gain weight were the very things that apparently have been keeping him sick and preventing him from gaining weight.
DS only drinks water now and we read food labels carefully to see if milk is listed as an ingredient. It hasn't even been a week yet but I am very hopeful. If he continues to do well with eating over the weekend and we can see some weight gain, we will most likely cancel the endoscopy.
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Re: Fingers crossed we have discovered the problem
My niece has a pretty severe dairy intolerance (among quite a few other intolerance and allergies). She has had it since birth, even when she was BF (my sister cut all dairy out of her diet as long as she BF). Even the tiniest bit of milk makes her break out from head to toe and gives her horrible stomach upset. They have discovered recently that she can drink raw milk with absolutely no problems. Even if they cook with the raw milk she reacts but if she drinks it straight she has no issues. There must be something in raw milk that is destroyed in the cooking and pasteurization process that helps her body digest it. You obviously have to figure out what works for your family and if you're even comfortable giving raw milk but it might be worth looking into.