Failure to Thrive

[StipyTiger]

I have a 11week old baby who has been classed as significantly failing to thrive. He was born 5 weeks premature at 5lb9oz. He then dropped to 5lb3oz while in hospital but was up to 5lb7oz after 5 days so we were sent home. He was weighed in at 6lb 6oz at 6wks but in the last 4 weeks he has only gained 3oz. He is eating well and a good amount. He's alert, having wet and dirty nappies too. I have been to the paediatric unit at out local hospital where they have given me high calorie feed to give him. They also said his immunity is lower than it should be. Does anyone have a similar story and can now tell me that they have a strapping 6ft son?

Hi, OP, just wanted to offer a quick hug: it's 23 years ago but I remember that feeling of complete helplessness so strongly.

The situation around my dd was probably a bit different as we found out later (10 years later!) that hers had been a problem with suckling and she hadn't been getting enough nutrition even though we thought she had.

But the feeling of helplessness was the same and the feeling that as her mum somehow I ought to be able to make her grow.

We ended up admitted to hospital and got very good support there. The pictures of dd from 6 months show a smiley chubby baby. In her case, there was an underlying condition (Ehlers Danlos) which has gone on to affect her in other ways, but it was not life-threatening. When it came to the eating she just needed to turn that corner and get strong enough.

Your lo has had a bit of a tough start, hopefully he will turn the corner very soon.

Our youngest was born at a similar time and weighed slightly less; he is both tall and strong, works long shifts and does weight-lifting when he's not out running.

Fingers crossed for turning that corner, OP!

Youngest DD was full term but born symmetrically below the 0.4th. She went on to loose 40% of her 5lb birthweight WITH high calorie extras from BCH. That frankly nearly killed her. IF a hospital suspects failure to thrive they do like to keep an eye on things as if un-monitored and unhelpful it has the potential to kill.

DD’s teeny growth was plotted on an A2 sized specialised ‘failure to thrive’ chart so even the smallest increase would be visible. It was a rare week that she gained a fraction of anything. She was syringe fed EBM with every fortifier known to the hospital. She let them know what she thought of every calories enriched specialised milk by refusing to swallow and spitting out back out. She had to be fed every two hours and struggled to maintain her core body temprature. She spent her first few months next to me using ‘kangaroo care’. That helped her stay warm and earned her the nickname of ‘Pocket Baby’ from the nurses. Hospital suspected she had Silver-Russell or a rather rare metabolic something for a long time until all the tests came back with ‘she is just one of those very small babies’. That took three years though.

It took her weeks to get back to her birthweight. She did not hit 12lb until her first birthday and was still in 0-3 month clothing. BCH kept a close eye on her to check she was developing and they had not missed anything. Finding shoes was the biggest headache as she was walking by her first bday.

She stayed well under the 0.4th until secondary school when she managed a sort of growth spurt. She is still petite but symmetrically petite.

She never made the strapping height but she survived and is mostly healthy [she has ploy-fibrous dysplasia in her bones but that is something completely seperate]

My elder son was born at 35 weeks. He was also slow to establish good feeding and specialised in dozing off as soon as the initial hunger pang went rather than filling his tummy. His immune system stayed a bit under par as he missed out on the the final days to boost it. It may be that is down to having been born a little early rather than not gaining weight as expected. TBH some of the slightly early baby’s can give their parents some real grey hairs as you just do not expect being a bit early to have a significant impact yet it can.

I really hope the higher calorie feed helps your son.