DS not growing (height or weight)? Dr. update post 13

[MamaF]

Originally Posted by sdavis514 Please let me know if you get any other advice. My DS sounds exactly the same as yours. He is currently 8 months and 16lb 12oz. He has not grown in height since he was 5 months- 27 in. He is developing fine when it comes to physical( rolled at 3 month, sat at 5 month, crawles at 7 months and is cruising and getting ready to walk now. The doctor advised we start solids at 6 months b/c he had only gained a pound from month 4-6. Plus he wakes atleast 4 times a night, more than as a newborn. We are currently giving him reflux medicine to see if that is the problem. He doesn't spit up but burps alot and shakes his head afterwards like it bothers him. We will see if that helps. The burps are bothering him more now but he is sleeping through the night so I am not sure. Also, my first ped. threatened to call SS on us at DS's 6 month appt b/c he was not gaining. We switched peds and this dr is doing more than just blaming my EBFing him. Good luck. I often wonder how we could have ended up with such a small baby. My husband and I are both over 6ft as well as many members of our families. DS is the smallest ever baby in my family too.

I will let you know. I know our Dr. (we see family practioner) is very for breastfeeding and i know the Ped. we saw when DD was admitted for dehydration b/c of flu at 8months was too. DS has never been on any antibiotics and has only had one bad cold. During that time and time DD had the flu Dr. told us to stop solids and go back to EBFing b/c that's the best nutrition and best way to ensure they get all the nutrition and don't just fill up on solids that may only provide one or two types of nutrition. both my DC were growing fine and never had any problems until we started solids. I know when i was reading up on what happened with DD that b/c her digestive system wasn't ready for solids that messing with her digestive system could take down your immune system and she was always getting sick. DS I think we have food issues whether it be allergies, or intolerance or something else. I know if you're body has trouble digesting foods or absorbing nutrients for whatever reason that it can hinder your growth. If you're son was fine on BM before starting solids, it's not the BM that's the issue. I am thankful that our Dr. is sooo great with the BFing and all for it.
I used to nanny for a Dr. in the area we have to go for the gastro and he's going to try to get us in sooner with a friend of his that does Ped. gasto. We are still waiting on some of the allergy test results. I'm hoping it's nothing, but on the other hand I don't want to wait until his development in other areas starts slowing down to do anything about it. My personality is that i'd rather be proactive and look at things before they become issues than waiting for them to become issues (KWIM?). It's good to know that there is another child that hasn't grown in height during their first year. I know he could have a growth spurt any day, but 5months seems like a long time not to grow at all. KWIM?

We have gone back to BFing along except for rice puffs, rice cereal, and mummums(these new baby rice treat things). Rice seems to not bother him.
I hope the reflux meds work for you. DS doesn't seem to be gasy or have gas issue. He farted up a storm when a baby and every once in awhile now, but otherwise no gas issues here. DD was the same though (and so is DH and MIL )

Please keep me updated though on how things go with you guys.

My DD weighed in at 29lbs at the ER last night (for ear infection) She's tall and skinny though (like DH's side of the family) poor thing will be going back to her 12mon. shorts and skirts this summer b/c she has no butt or hips. She'll be 3 toward the end of July. She's got such long arms though that she's in 4T winter shirts and 3T pants (of course adjustable waist only)

[Delaney21]

I don't want to scare you, but your story sounds a lot like ours. Mitchell does have food allergies, but he was reacting to every food regardless of the negative allergy testing for those foods. He would wake up screaming every half hour, thrash around in bed, and was just miserable in general. He quit growing at 6 months and at 12 months he was finally hospitalized for FTT, dehydration and malnourishment. We pushed for answers and he was scheduled for an endoscopy w/ biopsies. The biopsy results came back and Mitchell has Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis - the mother of all food allergies. We found out that he was slowly starving to death, even though he was nursing around the clock because his body was trying to attack the food proteins in my BM and they were tearing up his GI tract so he couldn't absorb any nutrients. He is now on an amino-acid formula via a g-tube and he is back on the growth charts and he is a new baby now. We always thought he had energy before, but man he is amazing us with his energy levels now!

If you have any quesitons about this, please let me know. You can view the link in my siggy, which is a video that shows what it is like to live with an Eos. disorder and gives a link to more information.

[MamaF]

Well we had the gastro specialist the other day and he doesn't seem to think it's absorption or gastro issues b/c if it was he wouldn't be absorbing or digesting he would be excreteing it, b/c DS only poops once a day on solids and only throws up once after sweet potato and not all the time. (i wasn't thinking at the time and will relay it when we go back in a month, but DS only pooped once every 3-4 days when EBF (DD was once a week EBF) and even if we only give him a little solids every other day he still poops once a day and a practically full diaper and his EBF poops aren't 1/2 that amount.)

Anyway, he thinks it's definately intolerance and allergies even if the tests are coming back negative and thinks he's not getting enough calories for what he needs. we are starting by my pumping off the foremilk so he can fill up on the higher calorie hindmilk and then offering him the foremilk throughout the day for (#1 more calories #2 immunities in the foremilk). After a couple weeks of just that so i'm going to try avacado (he suggested b/c it's very high (good) fat/calorie and less likely to have an allergy/intolerance to). I'm waiting a couple weeks so i can write down and document all his poops EBF vs solids so I can ask if that makes a difference and have exacts and not be trying to guess and remember from 4months ago what his poops were like. (I'm pretty sure, but not positive on the every 3-4 days)

After a month we may have to add perscription hypo-allergenic formula to some pumped milk. Depending on how things go with food we may have to give formula and/or pediasure. Right now we're working on this month and see how things go.

Ohh i forgot to add: this Dr. doesn't like to go too much by measurements b/c it is soo hard on squirming babies and you can actually be up to an inch off every time. (which adds something else i didn't think about while in the office...he's been wearing 6-9month clothes since he was 4 months and they are only a little shorter on him?) Added that to my list for next visit.

[TestifyToLove]

Honestly, your doctor's information doesn't make sense regarding poop and a breastfed child.

I don't mean to scare you. But, after reading story after story after story of parents who couldn't explain the weight loss and spent months searching for an answer, did anyone start with a more basic test for Cystic Fibrosis? A lot of CF parents report that while on exclusive breastfeeding it nearly or completely masked the symptoms of the CF, especially in the poop and weight departments. It wasn't until they started weaning and offering solids that their seemingly healthy children started dropping and unable to regain the lost ground.

[MamaF]

Originally Posted by TestifyToLove Honestly, your doctor's information doesn't make sense regarding poop and a breastfed child. I don't mean to scare you. But, after reading story after story after story of parents who couldn't explain the weight loss and spent months searching for an answer, did anyone start with a more basic test for Cystic Fibrosis? A lot of CF parents report that while on exclusive breastfeeding it nearly or completely masked the symptoms of the CF, especially in the poop and weight departments. It wasn't until they started weaning and offering solids that their seemingly healthy children started dropping and unable to regain the lost ground.

well we kinda fast tracked everything b/c of DH losing job. My guess is Dr. figured that GI would test for what he felt necessary (knowing that we were fast tracking this and no other tests...other than allergy tests...were done) We had to switch Dr.'s due to change in insurance and b/c we aren't going back to GI till the 15th and he reccomended no other tests he sent us for the CF test and bloodwork for other things. Our old Dr. normally would have tested for things b/c he did with DD and that's when she had abnormalities in her blood work (turned out she had ear infection when we did blood work and that was all that's why it came out odd) so i know if things hadn't gone haywire with DH's job we would have done normal tests first...also with son we went to GI b/c things seem to be related to food so trying to get into GI before losing insurance was our goal.

we should be getting results back from tests tomorrow or Thur. and i will update for you.

Thank you for your input I really appreciate it.

[Housefullofgirls]

Breathing new life in this post. This sounds exactly like my daughter I'm beyond worried. Heather what was the final outome.

[Rdesonia]

I hope you have gotten some answers. I know one thing that can effect weight gain is activity. Once they start running around it is not uncommon for babies to "thin out" just a little. They don't "gain" but are getting taller and less chunky.

I just thought I'd throw that into the mix as increased activity can be a factor along with the other problems.

[Housefullofgirls]

Originally Posted by Rdesonia I hope you have gotten some answers. I know one thing that can effect weight gain is activity. Once they start running around it is not uncommon for babies to "thin out" just a little. They don't "gain" but are getting taller and less chunky. I just thought I'd throw that into the mix as increased activity can be a factor along with the other problems.

Now we are dealing with highly probable EOE like above poster. When we're talking not growing we are talking my daughter is the same height as she was at 7 months old & she;s going to be 14 months in a few days. It's pretty dramatic. We have been getting some answers & on some reflux meds for 2 weeks & are helping some. It's super serious

[Delaney21]

Originally Posted by Housefullofgirls Now we are dealing with highly probable EOE like above poster. When we're talking not growing we are talking my daughter is the same height as she was at 7 months old & she;s going to be 14 months in a few days. It's pretty dramatic. We have been getting some answers & on some reflux meds for 2 weeks & are helping some. It's super serious

I haven't been on here in a long time, but I received a notification when you posted this.

I'm sorry you are going through this! What makes you think it's EoE? Have you had a scope yet? What's the plan?

Just to ease your mind - my DS is now 5 1/2 and despite being a severe case, is doing very well! He can do everything a normal 5 year old can do, except eat. He still has his g-tube that he gets a formula through, but it doesn't slow him down at all. We just went on his Make-A-Wish trip and had an amazing time!

If you have any questions, let me know. I'd be happy to help!

[pharmmama]

Wow, that definitely sounds like an eosinophilic disorder or a T-cell mediated allergy. Whole bunch of related conditions with very related symptoms. Symptoms usually start within the first 6-12 months of life and 90% of kids will grow out of it by the age of 3. DS is 3 with FPIES (food protein induced enterocolitis syndrome) to milk and soy. Very hard to get diagnosed because most docs look at a negative allergy test and go "well, it can't be an allergy". I'd also like to recommend some good resources. Check out the current diagnosis and management guidelines for food allergies here http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/food...nesPatient.pdf , the FPIES forum at babycenter, a power point presentation from the University of Chicago http://pediatrics.uchicago.edu/chief...oodAllergy.pdf , and a review in Clinical Immunology on the topic http://www.expert-reviews.com/doi/pdf/10.1586/eci.11.13 .

The mamas in the FPIES forum on babycenter are very helpful and will answer anything. A mama on there helped me find a doc that was familiar with the condition. Until I found the right doc, nobody had any idea what to do with DS. He got light years better after we removed milk (the constant eye/ear infections stopped completely), and the rest of his symptoms have been clearing up since we removed soy a week ago.