We had a new DC boy start today. We haven't physically seen him since they interviewed when he was 3/4 weeks old. He is now 8 weeks old, and this morning when DCM dropped him off, she mentioned that he was getting cereal in his bottle because the Dr. was concerned he wasn't gaining enough weight (I will write about the cereal thing below). DCB was still in the carseat when mom told me, but when my assistant and I took him out, we were shocked. He is so incredibly small. I truly felt like I was holding a baby that had just been delivered.
When DCD came to pick him up, we chatted more about his weight - and at his 2 mo check up last week - he had only gained 7oz since birth. Hypoglycemia test came back positive & negative (ran test two times). DCD said before they jump the gun and assume it's something worse, they are going to try the cereal for a week.
My first thought was it looks like failure to thrive. Has anyone dealt with anything like this ? Any suggestions I could give the parents ? The family is super sweet, and we would love to be as supportive as we can.
Also, clearly I am not a pediatrician - but adding cereal to his bottles (to me) would seem to fill him up faster - but I don't think that would help anything since the faster he gets full - the less formula he consumes and the less often he is hungry, and I don't get how that would help with consuming more calories and putting on weight ?!? Today he only drank 4.5 oz of his usual 6oz bottle, since it had cereal in it. Seems odd to me. The Dr. is only trying it for one week - so at least the Dr. isn't going to risk it for longer than a week. Then I guess, they move onto testing for other things...
When DCD came to pick him up, we chatted more about his weight - and at his 2 mo check up last week - he had only gained 7oz since birth. Hypoglycemia test came back positive & negative (ran test two times). DCD said before they jump the gun and assume it's something worse, they are going to try the cereal for a week.
My first thought was it looks like failure to thrive. Has anyone dealt with anything like this ? Any suggestions I could give the parents ? The family is super sweet, and we would love to be as supportive as we can.
Also, clearly I am not a pediatrician - but adding cereal to his bottles (to me) would seem to fill him up faster - but I don't think that would help anything since the faster he gets full - the less formula he consumes and the less often he is hungry, and I don't get how that would help with consuming more calories and putting on weight ?!? Today he only drank 4.5 oz of his usual 6oz bottle, since it had cereal in it. Seems odd to me. The Dr. is only trying it for one week - so at least the Dr. isn't going to risk it for longer than a week. Then I guess, they move onto testing for other things...
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