HELP! Stressed failure to thrive

[Hazzyyy]

Hello,

Could someone please help/hand hold

My 16 week old has gradually dropped from 9th to the 2nd centile. He's never lost weight but only gaining 100g roughly a week. Last week, no weight gain.

Paediatrics have diagnosed him failure to thrive :'-(. They have recommended 2 x100ml bottles of high calorie formula. He is EBF.

He won't take more than 3oz (2/2.5oz usually) at a time and that's maximum, so it's taking me up to 4 times to finish the 200ml of formula.

He cries when he's done and won't accept more than that. He breastfeeds one on breast for 5-7mins every 2-3hrs. I can't get him to feed more. The other breast is 'dry' due to recurrent mastitis.

I was wondering if anyone could help me in any reassuring stories about failure to thrive or any help with silent reflux symptoms? Is that why he won't drink more?

He is such a happy content baby with plenty of wet nappies and a couple of dirty nappies a day.

Thanks

To be honest the symptoms were so diffuse it took forever to diagnose (4 months!) by which time he was well and truly off the charts.

When we tried giving him formula he threw it all up (through his nose, poor thing) and refused it from then in. He spent a lot of time on the breast suckling but not actually drinking.

He was clearly in pain sometimes after feeding, he had prolonged episodes of crying hard. Ds2, who also had reflux (egg allergy in his case) didn't have this anything like as badly.

The thing to bear in mind if you are going to try and elimination diet is that you have to cut out all cow products, not just milk, and soy as well (most babies with CMPA react to soya too). It also takes a good 3 weeks for the CMP to leave your system, so you have to stick with it even though initially you won't see any results.

He was given omeprazole and metoclopramide. He was on them for 6 weeks, then weaned gradually off them. We also introduced solids from 16 weeks (consultant's advice).

Keeping him upright for half an hour after feeds helped too.

OP my firstborn was failure to thrive so I get this x100. There weight at this age fluctuates so much so take that into account. You sound like your doing the right thing offering top up in between feeds etc so just stick at it as it takes time for them to be able to accept more, remember their tummies are so tiny!. Also what pp have said. Check reflux, silent reflux, toungue tie ( posterior too). And rule all of that out first. If its TT then it explains why baby is feeding for short period as they get tired sucking if it's more hard work than it should be for them. I'd say get TT checked twice because it was only picked up on my second one when I got then checked 8 weeks in, again, as first Dr's and midwives missed it.

For silent reflux we had gaviscon but it ones big game of elimination so stick at it.

Try different bottles, different formula, different temperatures, different feeding positions and different feeders (ie partner instead of you).

We had a lot of trial and error before finding my daughter would only take a particular type of bottle, milk very hot and preferred being fed while being carried around.

Don't panic though if they only take a bit at a time - it's not ideal for you but just try to offer often.