Failure to thrive anyone know anything about it?

[girlsyearapart]

Took my DD to be weighed today and she hasn't put any weight on in 6 weeks. (infact dropped a tiny bit) Has dropped to 9th centile for weight and length. (was previously on 90th at birth and then dropped to 50th then 25th 6 weeks ago) Seeing dietitian next week in the meantime been advised to put extra scoops in her bottle for a week. Just wondered if anyone had any ideas of what I can give her to beef her up a bit? Not allowed dairy soya wheat egg tomato or banana. The HV thinks if she carries on will be failing to thrive. Help please! Don't want to change her diet as it has really sorted out her severe excema..

[girlsyearapart]

By the way she is 9 and half months old.

[Northernlurker]

Well with that level of dietary restriction I'm not surprised you're struggling a bit. What type of milk does she have? Have you tried her on avocado at all? I think they are quite high calorie - but I'm not sure about the allergy potential.

[Northernlurker]

yes avocado sounds like a good thing

[lou031205]

Oh, really not a good idea:

"Over-concentration of the feed may lead to hypernatraemia (raised serum sodium) with dehydration and possible severe brain damage or death, or to hypercalcaemia and hyperphosphataemia."

books.google.co.uk/books?id=FVOBaQdCA10C&pg=PT296&lpg=PT296&dq=extra+scoop+formula&source=bl&ots=IRN IIHhSVC&sig=mdmydR5sbrBIy5GgBlbTzd5x0JA&hl=en&ei=PzFKSsTSE8ihjAfwrJHQAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=resul t&resnum=9

Especially in this weather.

[lou031205]

Sorry, that is re: extra scoops, not avocado.

[Northernlurker]

Oh Lou what a good job you had that at your finger tips! I did wonder about that but never bottle fed so don't know the ins and outs of it.

[lou031205]

Never bottlefed myself, but knew it rang a bell. Googled. Can't believe a HV would suggest it, especially in this weather

[Northernlurker]

No - the poor op - won't exactly be confidence inspiring for her

[bamboostalks]

You may need to balance her excema problem against her weight problem. Very hard to pick up huge amounts of weight without dairy.

[sunshine175]

We have had similar problems. DS saw dietician who was great and said add non dairy butter e.g. pure sunflower to everything, pureed/mashed food etc. to add in calories. They don't call it failure to thrive now - its called faltering growth. We were referred to the hospital but they have been very supportive and referred us to the dietician. DS is allergic to dairy, eggs and soya.

[MonkeyPuzzle2]

My daughter is also allergic to dairy and below the 9th centile. On our dieticians advice we use a lot of olive oil, add dairy free spread to all food and add 1 scoop of Neocate, ( hypo allergenic formula ) to her food. As others have said avocados are full of calories if your daughter doesn't like them try mixing them with Papaya. Another idea is to make deserts like rice pudding using coconut milk its full of fat.

Good luck

[girlsyearapart]

It was the dietitian who said to give the extra scoops and to give her extra water to drink too. The extra is only for a week to see if weight goes up. The dietitian seems to be really good- the only person who has actually helped us so far. I have not tried avocado yet or coconut milk thanks monkey puzzle we will give them a go. We add Pure spread to anything mashed and she eats 3 meals a day 2 with either pureed fruit or jelly after them. Also cereal at bedtime and rice cakes and fruit as snacks so she's eating a fair bit! Very worrying to hear she hasn't gained any in last 6 weeks though.

[girlsyearapart]

She has nutramigen AA by the way 3 x 8oz a day.

[tatt]

sure about the foods? Sometimes eczema improves on it's on and reintroducing one at a time is the only way to be sure there's a problem. Avocado is not a common allergen so a good thing to try. Her diet doesn't sound too bad, you could make the jelly "milk" jelly, using the nutramigen or maybe mix nutramigen and baby rice for rice pudding.

[girlsyearapart]

DD1 has helpfully given her foods which she wasn't meant to have and they brought up her eczema bad again so really think there's something in the food thing. She looked really awful before diet change and we haven't changed her creams. They are putting her on milk reintroduction programme at 18 months and skin prick tests at 12 m. Would love it if we could start giving her more variety,hope she does grow out of allergies.

[toddlerama]

DD2 loves avocado mashed with anything to make it richer. Also hummous is a good addition. She loves it, but it's a strong flavour so some babies might not. Why does the health visitor want you to add extra scoop and offer more water?? Why not make up an extra feed?

[AcademicMum]

DS2 is classed as previous failure to thrive (dropped from 9th to 0.4th centile at 5.5 months, followed 0.4th centile and has slowly crept up to 2nd where he stil is at 13 months). The extra scoops is a common recommndation so far as I know and OK if kidney function is fine (they should check for this before recommending). We were told to add an extra scoop of neocate to EBM to beef up the calories a bit. Otherwise, try roasting all veg instead of boiling/steaming, oatly cream is good for calories esp. if mixed with a handful of e.g. blueberries. Adding either spread of some kind or olive oil to all veg is actually also a WHO recommendation, they just don't say that in this country as in general overweight is more of a problem than underweight. I also know some good recipes for egg free, milk free pancakes, cakes etc if that would help (using normal flower, but I guess it wouldn't be too difficult to switch this).

Finally, please try not to get stressed as your lo will pick up on that.

[AcademicMum]

sorry, is late. should clarify the blueberries in the oatly cream won't beef up the calories of the cream, but will make it yummy

[AcademicMum]

flour, not flower of course

[girlsyearapart]

she still has a few rolls of podge on her legs so i'm not too worried yet! hoping she will beef up by next week..