Anybody with the weight gain problem?

My daughter sounds like your daughter in terms of eating habits. It’s so difficult. Hailey actually flat out refused to feed one day, and since then has needed her bottles fed to her while asleep. I agree that you should try a PPI medication like prevacid, or zegerid. She’s likely still having pain from the acid, which is why she eats poorly. Even when my dd was medicated she never went above 20 ounces… we rarely hit that mark actually. For the most part she had around 16 ounces (if we were lucky), and sometimes as low as 12-14. We were lucky though, as she seemed to gain weight despite this. s&h’s mum2006-8-26 8:45:52

Hello and welcome.

Has her doctor said that her weight gain is not adequate? If not, I wouldn’t be too concerned about how much she’s eating. My son rarely ate more than 15-18 ounces of EBM a day until he was about 7-8 months old. He gained fine on that little.

If her weight gain is not adequate, than fortifying is probably a good idea; but certainly ask her doctor first.

The biggest concern is that she is struggling with her feedings. That’s definitely one of the classic signs of untreated reflux and it will likely get worse if her pain is not controlled with proper meds. My first refluxer was on Zantac and she only got minimal results initially and then it stopped working for her. A common problem with H2 Blockers. PPI meds like Zegerid and Prevacid seem to be much better stopping the acid that causes all the pain. My son did great on Prevacid. Once he was on the right dose the painfully long feedings, fighting the bottle, and constant irritability stopped. However, he still only drank 15 – 18 ounces per day, but he drank it happily and without a fuss.

You can read more about PPI meds at http://www.marci-kids.com

Good luck and glad you found us.

I personally wouldn’t worry too much about a heart problem. It sounds like they just want to look into this to be cautious. A few of us have been told to see cardiologists just to be sure. My older daughter was actually born with a small hole in her heart, which they just found by accident, and it closed up by the time she was a year. The cardiologist told us that with all of the ultrasounds we now get prenatally, most heart defects are caught before the baby is actually born, or they tend to be very insignificant anomalies. So don’t worry yourself for nothing.

I’m not saying that you don’t have a reason to worry, but I doubt it’s heart issues. It sounds to me like your baby has pain from silent reflux, hence the feeding issues and the poor weight gain. The other symptoms you mention like stuffiness, coughing are also classic signs. I think it’s very important that your daughter gets her acid controlled so that she can eat properly. The best way to do this is with a good dose of PPI. There’s a good site about reflux (not sure if anyone’s posted it yet) http://www.marci-kids.com . You can read up on reflux so that you’re educated about symptoms and meds etc, that way you’ll be able to know if your doc is on the ball or not. Unfortunately, if reflux pain is not controlled in a baby with feeding problems, it can lead to a feeding aversion, like with my daughter, which is why it’s important to get her feeling better.

Your doctor might want to do some tests to make sure that there are no structural malformations as a cause of the reflux, some of us have had this done, not all. Does she have any other behaviours other than the arching while eating, like choking, pulling off etc.?

As for the doctor telling you to stop breastfeeding, I personally think that no doctor should tell someone to do this. It’s your decision if you want to breastfeed or not, and aside from the obvious benefits, because it’s digested faster, breastmilk might be better for some refluxers. It should be your choice, not your doctors, and so I’d make sure that this is what you want to do before doing it. Once you quit nursing and move to pumping only, it can be a great challenge to persist. I stopped nursing eventually because Hailey wouldn’t eat, and I always wished that I had been able to continue. You might want to try an elimination diet (you can read more about it in Laura’s intro) if you want to keep nursing but try to eliminate potential allergens. Sometimes formula fed babies try hypoallergenic fomulas like nutramigen or alimentum or neocate. But I’m not quite sure why your doc would tell you to stop BF and go to a regular formula. Anyhow, either way, it’s YOUR decision. But don’t think you can’t BF a refluxer…. IT’S NOT TRUE!

Anyhow, hope that all goes well with your appointment. It’s too bad they couldn’t get her in sooner. I’d ask to be put on the cancellation list. That’s what we always did. If it makes you feel any better, my daughter also wasn’t eating (at 6 months she was down to around 14 ounces and that was a struggle) and they made us wait almost 4 months to get in to see the specialist. So hang in there. September is just around the corner!

I definitely agree to get it checked out, but try not to worry about it. My daughter’s was a tiny ventricular septal defect, and she was asymptomatic until it closed.

Aidan went on a “hunger strike” at about that age, 7-8 oz a day for a week or 2..but his dr said that as long as he was not dehydrated, or loseing weihgt all was ok, and that he would increase his intake eventually, which he did, but he never ate more than 20 ounces and still at almost 9 months, he only eats 28ish ounces….I would be sure to cover all your bases, but just wanted to let you know I went through the same thing, and everything came out ok!