Slow weight gain and need major support - Page 2

[Tmama]

Originally Posted by Lazurii 

Then, if at all possible, it's time to find a new doctor.  My little sister (see above) had to do that because her doctor refused to use the breastfeeding charts and FLIPPED on her and she was scared of CPS involvement.  Her new doctor is awesome and realizes that my niece had reflux and is also just a small baby.  Way less stressful for everyone.

I didn't even consider that and am now wondering if my pedi would ever do that to me.  She is so sweet but told my husband when he brought DS1 in for an ear check that she was worried about me with how stressed I've been (I was crying at the last visit).  I doubt it would ever come to that.  It's funny how I left her office (pedi) and she told me she wasn't alarmed but if he were to continue down on the trend she would be.  Then I go to gastro and I leave the gastro and gastro calls my pedi to say she is concerned.  Now my pedi is concerned?  

I am going in to my pedi this week for a weight check (and a lactation consultant/friend is coming by my house with a baby scale to weigh before and after a feed) and hopefully I can show her the WHO chart and ask her to double check his placement on that and see what she thinks.  

[PatioGardener]

how is his trend on the WHO chart? is he following a curve?

[Tmama]

Originally Posted by Lazurii 

Then, if at all possible, it's time to find a new doctor.  My little sister (see above) had to do that because her doctor refused to use the breastfeeding charts and FLIPPED on her and she was scared of CPS involvement.  Her new doctor is awesome and realizes that my niece had reflux and is also just a small baby.  Way less stressful for everyone.

This was the gastro doc by the way.  Curious as to what my pedi will say when I bring in my printed WHO chart...

[Tmama]

Originally Posted by PatioGardener 

how is his trend on the WHO chart? is he following a curve?

I think so...looks like it goes up and then levels off at 6 months.  He JUST turned 7 months yesterday...

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by Tmama 

I think so...looks like it goes up and then levels off at 6 months.  He JUST turned 7 months yesterday...

Is he following the same percentile line now as he was at 2 months? That's the important thing - staying close to the same percentile (no matter what the percentile!)

[Tmama]

I'm not positive since I don't have the standard growth chart in front of me with his weights plotted.  I know it was a downward trend since around 5 1/2 months or so.  That's when this all started anyway...he was going up the curve nicely then went down at some point.  He maybe was in the 50 th back then around 2 months.  All I know now is he is in the 10 th. 

As mentioned before, pedi said she isn't alarmed now and would be fine with her if he even stays in the 10th percentile.  If he continues downward trend, then that would concern her.  

[PatioGardener]

I ask because if he is "falling off the curve" with the WHO chart, in my experience increasing the amount of milk he is getting is usually the first step a breastfeeding friendly doc would suggest.

[Tmama]

Originally Posted by PatioGardener 

I ask because if he is "falling off the curve" with the WHO chart, in my experience increasing the amount of milk he is getting is usually the first step a breastfeeding friendly doc would suggest.

I would chop my left hand off in order to increase my milk supply.  I'm pumping, nursing frequently, increased water intake, eating oatmeal (on occasion if I'm not in a rush in the morning to get DS out the door to school), eating lactation cookies (about 2 a day) and taking fenugreek and blessed thistle 3 x a day.  I think it's increased slightly but I'm not positive, because 1) I heard fenugreek can take up to 2 weeks to work and 2) I've always been a bad pumper...even with DS1, when I had plenty of supply, pumping was never my forte.  So...I'm doing what I can.  He is pooping but there not the ol breastmilk watery poos anymore (obviously due to solids) there harder for him to get out...I'd hate to give him water or juice...you would think the pears I give him in the morning would help but apparently aren't enough to make his poop less dense.  He's not big on prunes either but hey...they don't taste as good as pears and other fruits.  I want to try avocado again but it kept coming out so thick and chunky even after I added water and mashed it with a fork...it seemed like he gagged a little on the texture being so thick.  Once he gagged a little, my DH wasn't big on giving him avocado just yet.  I do want to try again, maybe I can stick it in the processor a bit and get it smoothed out more?  I love the idea of avocado since it's a fatty food but it's the good fat.

[Tmama]

Originally Posted by Tmama 

I would chop my left hand off in order to increase my milk supply.  I'm pumping, nursing frequently, increased water intake, eating oatmeal (on occasion if I'm not in a rush in the morning to get DS1 out the door to school), eating lactation cookies (about 2 a day) and taking fenugreek and blessed thistle 3 x a day.  I think it's increased slightly but I'm not positive, because 1) I heard fenugreek can take up to 2 weeks to work and 2) I've always been a bad pumper...even with DS1, when I had plenty of supply, pumping was never my forte.  So...I'm doing what I can.  He is pooping but it's not the ol' breastmilk watery poos anymore (obviously due to solids) there harder for him to get out...I'd hate to give him water or juice since the pears I give him in the morning apparently aren't enough to make his poop less dense.  He's not big on prunes either but hey...they don't taste as good as pears and other fruits.  I want to try avocado again but it kept coming out so think and chunky even after I added water and mashed it with a fork...it seemed like he gagged a little on the texture being so thick.  Once he gagged a little, my DH wasn't big on giving him avocado just yet.  I do want to try again, maybe I can stick it in the processor a bit and get it smoothed out more?  I love the idea of avocado since it's a fatty food but it's the good fat.

[Tmama]

Originally Posted by Tmama 

didn't mean to quote myself...can't figure out how to delete this...sorry!

[tincia]

Putting the avacado through some kind of blender/food processor really help, as well as adding some fruit to it if he isnt crazy about the bland taste..goat yogurt and banana also have good fats too. We use them to supplement my low supply and it works well! Much preferred to formula!!

[tincia]

Oh, i also forgot, make sure the avacado is ripe/soft enough too..if it isnt, put it in a paper bag with an apple or banana and it ripens crazy fast!

[Tmama]

Update...weighed in yesterday with an LC...16lbs and did a quick short feed and gained 2 oz.  So at minimum, he is getting at least 2 oz.  and that was a quick feed.

Went to pedi today and her scale read 15 lbs and 13 oz.   he was naked for this weigh in however and not with the LC's scale...  I'm going with 16lbs 

Pedi was happy.  Thats umm...almost a POUND in 2 weeks   I guess something is working and of course adding the solids and doing 2 meals a day helped.  Also, could have been a growth spurt?  Who knows...maybe he was storing things and then just shot up a bit?  Not sure...

If I can keep this up for the next 5 months...I'll be happy.  Not that I'm stopping BF at 12 months but at least at that point, the threat or fear of being told I have to supplement will disappear and pedi will ask him to drink milk of some sort and eat some eggs etc.  I love BF past a year and however long after that - if my first DS was having a picky eating day, at least I knew he was getting BM to cover our butts.

I also gave her my WHO chart and asked her to make a copy for her to keep -  which the LC plotted for me - 15th percentile.  Much better than 10th...so I'll take it!

I'm not crazy about the Reglan.  I initially thought, what if I just took it for a week or so just to up the supply then stop but I'm reluctant to even do that.  I really really want the domperidone but either med, DH isn't crazy about me taking meds for that (even though I informed him it was safer than Tylenol).  He just thinks (especially after weigh in today) that everything is fine and keep doing what I'm doing...

Thanks for everyone's listening and suggestions/support.  It really means a lot when going through a rough time of stress.  

LC is sending the gastro doc a report on the baby just to sort of give her the information.  Hopefully that will inform her not to make moms panic if there isn't a huge issue.