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Failure to Thrive-before and after pics! I can't believe how sick he used to be!
- Jan 24, 2008 at 4:52 PM
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I was just looking through my son's pics from a few months ago and I was SHOCKED at how skinny he was. Look how stick thin he was here, can you guess how old he was?
see how thin his arms are in this close up...
He was 12lbs when these photos were taken, but here's the scary part, my son was 8 months old! We tried everything to stop his weight loss. I went to a breastfeeding counselor and we hoped he was just getting too much fore milk. I tried pumping before feeding him, pumping while feeding him, block nursing (nursing on only one breast per feeding to guarantee he's getting hind milk) but it wasn't a fore milk problem, and it wasn't a supply problem either (cuz if it was, i certainly didn't have a supply problem after all that pumping and experimentation! I could have nursed twins easily!) The docs had me start solids at 7 months when he started loosing weight, at 8 months they had me adding pumped milk and rice to all of his solids for extra calories. My son also had really bad reflux, but it wasn't the reflux causing the weight loss, actually there was a time when he gained almost a pound and the reflux stopped, he then lost the pound and about a week after he lost the pound, he started refluxing again. It was like the weight loss triggered the reflux, not the other way around like a lot of failure to thrive babies. My son stopped developing and his head stopped growing. That's when we started to really worry about brain damage. We took him to a neurologist and a pediatric GI specialist. They both did a ton of tests and found nothing wrong with my little guy, no deformities, no blockage, nothing. Nothing was abnormal in his blood work. I even stored every poop he had in my frige in little vials for a week and that came back normal too. The GI doc was a huge advocate for breastfeeding, she had just weaned her 18 month old twins 2 weeks before we saw her, her nutritionist also was a veteran breastfeeder. But they told me it was time to start looking into formula, the only other option was a feeding tube in the hospital...so NOT an option! They had me start pumping my milk and fortifying it with 3 scoops of formula with every 4 ounces of breastmilk, 7 times a day, I pumped while and after I nursed him like normal, I just couldn't bring myself to rely solely on the pump. I also kept adding BM and rice cereal to his solids 3 times a day. This poor kid was eating almost every 2 hours, including at night. I had to set an alarm for every 3 hours and wake him up to eat. So here he was, 1 month after starting the diet-
See the chub on his legs already!! He started developing and gaining within a week. He went from almost a vegetable that slept all the time and was really weak to crawling in only a month. Here he was at 10 months, 2 months into the diet-
He gained 4 lbs and started sitting on his own, he had never done that before. It was then the docs had us drop the night time feedings and reduce the bottle from 7 to 5. He continued to thrive!
At 11 months he mastered pulling up. Look at the meat on his arms and legs! (pardon the mess, y'all know how it is with kids and husbands lol!) By his first birthday he was 20lbs and standing on his own.
Once he hit 20lbs I was able to fully wean him off the bottles and he is now only breastfed! I still add milk and cereal to his solids, mostly because he likes it that way. Just before he turned 13 months he took his first steps. My boy has come a long way from that stick boy he once was. We don't know if he will have any lasting effects from the failure to thrive, his latest brain scans are that of a normal 13 month old boy, he still has weight checks and blood tests done regualarly to make sure whatever caused it doesn't come back (they still don't know). All I know is I'm glad the formula was there when he needed it to keep him off feeding tubes, but I sure am glad he doesn't need it anymore! Cheers to you Danny boy!
"Look ma, no hands!" (he looks like he's leaning on the couch but he's standing by himself.
Comments:
Wow - I had no idea you guys had gone through so much! I only started seeing pictures of him when he was already bright eyed & bushy-tailed! Still can't get enough of Old Blue Eyes. He's gorgeous!
I'm so glad you have everything straightened out. I'm glad the formula was able to help you so much. I tried breast-feeding & pumping for three months and just never produced enough milk for my little angel so we had to rely on formula to supplement. I kept hoping my milk would come in but it never did. I tried medications, old wives tales, herbal remedies, pumping every couple of hours (with a Medela Pump In Style) everything! So I'm really glad I was able to use formula to keep Katy well-fed. You're really lucky that you produce enough to feed him so much.
Give "Frank" a hug for me!
Jenny
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