We’re back from the appointment.
According to their scale Jade was only 10 lbs, 3 oz, which was a gain of only 9 oz in an entire month. Even though her cheeks are still chubby and she looks basically healthy, the doctor said she could tell Jade wasn’t doing well weight wise by looking at her ribs and shoulder blades.
We talked about all the issues at play – reflux, colic, heart, foremilk imbalance (due to poor nursing – she’s only getting the thinner stuff that comes first, not getting to the richer stuff that comes last) and possible allergies, as well as the fact that her diaper changes are indicating some disturbance in her digestive system (greenish/thinner stools). The fact that she seems to be sleeping more (although very alert and active while awake).
She agreed, it’s hard to tell what exactly is causing her to nurse poorly – is it pain? Frustration? If pain, pain from what? Reflux? Allergies? Or it could be that it’s colic, and her system is just taking a little longer to mature than most infants? Could it be that her earlier exposure to dairy was what was causing the reflux symptoms, and that’s no longer an issue – in which case, the Zantac could actually be hindering her digestion. Could it be a pyloric stenosis? We discussed all of this.
She ordered a failure to thrive blood panel, to check her glucose, thyroid and some other level I forget (iron?), and she will also have an upper GI and ultrasound of her abdomen done as soon as the outpatient center calls to schedule it. This should help us narrow down what may be going on.
Because of my own history with a milk allergy, and how severe it got (I also suffered from failure to thrive – to a dangerous degree), and the fact that soy formula helped, and the fact that Jade really needs to get some extra nutrition from somewhere, she did end up recommending I supplement a little with a soy formula.
This is not what I wanted to do, and I am struggling a bit with the decision to supplement, but at this point we’ve got to do *something* while we figure out what’s going on with her. And besides, this is what formula was designed for – to give nutritional alternative or boost when breastmilk alone isn’t enough. I think it’ll help to just think of it as another supplement, like her acidophilus. I’ll be giving her an ounce by dropper (to avoid nipple confusion, and because she doesn’t take a bottle well) a few times a day to see if it helps her start gaining weight.
I still plan on nursing, eliminating certain foods from my diet, and keeping up my supply and hopefully, once we get whatever her issues are diagnosed and resolved we can go back to exclusively breastfeeding.
The doctor wants to see her back in another two weeks for a check up, which happens to be the day of her next cardiologist appointment, so that will be good – we can discuss what he had to say as well.
