Failure to Thrive
I'm looking for input from anyone who may have experienced what I'm going through right now with my son. He's 18 mos. old and is 22 lbs. He hasn't really gained weight for the last 5 months and our pediatrician is concerned. He has food allergies (milk, eggs, nuts). I'm still nursing him and he doesn't appear to be ready to wean yet, which I am fine with. He's taking Cytra-3 because he had low co2 levels and they are back to normal now. We saw a nutritionist who said he's fine...no need to worry. The next day we had a GI consult and they said it's failure to thrive. They tested his stool and said that there's no evidence of malnourishment, but they want me to stop breastfeeding immediately and start feeding him higher fat foods. I'm worried sick and am having a hard time with 2 completely different diagnosis. I can do the fatty foods, but he went on a liquid strike when I tried to stop nursing and I'm guessing that breastmilk is better than dehydration. He will drink water from a sippy cup, but he's not impressed with soy milk. Any thoughts? Advice??
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jaime James on -
So here is the latest with Noah. We had an endoscopy (scope) done and the GI said his esophogus, stomach, and upper intestine all looked normal & healthy. Tissues samples came back normal as well. They talked to us again about limiting or stopping nursing all together because if he didn't gain weight 3 weeks after the endoscopy we were looking at a feeding tube as the next step. I can't even tell you how lousy a moment that was. Well, my husband and I decided to cut out nursing except for bedtime. I was letting Noah nurse on demand, whenever he wanted even through the night. My husband was finally done with a great deal of traveling and was more than willing to give me support and get up with Noah in the night as he transitioned to the lack of nursing. I did the same thing for our daughter but she was always a good eater. Can you guess what was happening? Noah preferred nursing over everything..especially food but I didn't think it was a big deal. He was drowning his appetite with breastmilk and hence the lack of weight gain. After 2 weeks of only letting him nurse for bedtime he gained 14 oz. I will eventually wean him of that as well, but I'm not stressing about it....we've been dealing with enough for now. Noah has been eating like a champ, taking better naps & sleeping through the night in his crib for at least 11 hours. The GI doc gave us a clean bill of health and we don't need to see them again. Our pediatrician was so happy she hugged me. My mantra was, "Anything is better than a feeding tube." It's one of those things that as a parent I'm figuring out day by day. I didn't do anything different with Noah than I did with Gwyneth but he clearly was burning through calories like crazy and nursing enough to curb his appetite for food. I'm not a very scheduled mother, but for Noah very clear mealtimes and sleeping schedules just work better for him. Every child is different and I learned the hard way how true that is. Some of you may be thinking....duh.....we could of told you that you needed to stop night time nursing, etc. but I just wasn't ready to believe that nursing was the reason he wasn't gaining weight. I feel like an idiot, he's 20 mos. old now and this has been going on for the last 6 months. Noah is doing great now and filling out again. I can't tell you all how much it helped to have this forum to seek advice and share stories. I read and re-read every post and it brought me so much comfort knowing I wasn't the only one. Thank you again everyone!
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Permalink Reply by KM on -
I'm glad to hear your son is doing so much better! I admire your ability to see the differences in your children, and acknowledge that what is good for one, may not be good for the other. You and your husband sound like great parents!
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Permalink Reply by Guggie Daly on -
None of this makes any sense. Your child had no signs of malnourishment even with a stool analysis but had invasive procedures done on him?
Nursing can't restrict weight gain: human milk is nutrient and calorie dense.
I wonder if you are on a strict diet and/or exercising more than 3x a week? Maybe you didn't have enough calories to give to him.
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Permalink Reply by Davonia on
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My son did this too. He didn't have any milk allergies, and he just drank so much milk that he didn't want to eat anything else. I don't think it was specifically the fat that he needed, I think he needed the variety in his diet. Just imagine if you drank a cup of milk every time you thought you were hungry. Your body would be lacking the vitamins that it needs, not fat and calories. I'm glad he's doing well now.
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Permalink Reply by Holly C on -
Just checked for updates, I'm so glad to hear that Noah is doing well again!
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Permalink Reply by Karen M on -
Crazy! I wouldnt stop breastfeeding but you do need to make sure that he eats first and nurses last. Things like avocado, soy yogurt, smoothies (fruit, avocado, banana, silken tofu) things that are calorie dense and make every bite count makes more sense to me.
Their weight gain totally levels out by 18 mos, they don't gain a whole lot. My 28 mo old DD has weighed 26 lbs for the last 6-8 months at least. She gained 1 oz between 24m and 26m and she is healthy as a horse! What does your gut say?
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Permalink Reply by beebrown02 on -
Definitely start adding avocado (i see your son has a nut allergy so some foods are out). I also don't really see 22lbs as being THAT low. My dd had a few months where she didn't really gain much weight. Breastmilk is high in fat so I don't really see why anyone would want you to stop that - especially in a child with a lot of food allergies.
Can you get a second opinion? I would recommend seeing a child development specialist. If his development is still typical then he might just be small.
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