Please Help My Dd

[Tajsa]

Hi! I'm new here. A little background on my daughter. She is almost 13 months old. She weighs 16lbs 5oz. Her growth has been very slow. She's under the 3 percentile on the charts for her weight and head circumference. She's in the 50 percentile for height. At 9 months our ped recommended that we see a GI specialist. So off we went. We just did a blood test for celiac which came back negative. Now the GI wants to do an upper endoscopy. I'm very nervous about this. My dd looks healthy and is exceeding all the milestones.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I really don't want to put her under for scope. I feel she's just small. We do have small people in our family. I'd hate to be wrong too. WWYD?

[Ridgewalker]

Welcome to the board!

Does your daughter have any other symptoms at all, besides being small? Have you looked at a symptoms list? Click here to see Open Original Shared Link, and if you read the Parents' forum, you'll see more. Symptoms are VERY widely varied.

If your daughter has absolutely no symptoms besides being small, I'm with you. I would be very reluctant to allow an endoscopy on a child so young for that reason alone.

You said her growth has been slow. Has it been steady, or has it suddenly dropped? Did she nurse, or formula-feed? Does she look disproportionate-- i.e. does she look scrawny? Does she have a potbelly?

The fact that she's in the 50th percentile for height is good. 3rd percentile for weight is low-- but also keep in mind that those charts are just national records. They don't have much to do with where a child "should" be. A few months ago, I asked our family doc if my oldest son's weight was too low.

She checked it on the chart, and he came out at 40th percentile. She said she was very happy with this because the charts are showing higher weight numbers because of the nation-wide childhood obesity issue.

Now, obviously there's a big difference between 40th percentile and 3rd percentile. Even so, I feel like doing an endoscopy on a baby with no symptoms except for being small would make me very uncomfortable.

A couple questions might help... You said her growth has been slow. Has it been steady, or has it suddenly dropped? Does she look disproportionate-- i.e. does she look scrawny? Does she have a potbelly? Has she had any personality or energy changes-- at any time, but particularly when she started eating solid foods?

[Tajsa]

  Ridgewalker said:

Welcome to the board!

A couple questions might help... You said her growth has been slow. Has it been steady, or has it suddenly dropped? Does she look disproportionate-- i.e. does she look scrawny? Does she have a potbelly? Has she had any personality or energy changes-- at any time, but particularly when she started eating solid foods?

Thanks for your response Sara.

Her growth was good up until four months when it started slowing way down. She never lost weight just grew at a slower rate. She's breastfed. The ped and I thought it was my milk supply. So I took measures to increase it. We started solids at six months. No change in behavior at all. She's doesn't look disproportionate or scrawny and has no potbelly. We did try whole milk when she turned 12 months, but she couldn't tolerate it. She would wake up screaming in pain. We switch to soy milk and haven't had any problems. Some nights she wakes up still and seems a little gassy. We're still breastfeeding twice a day. Her poops are soft. Not solid or runny like diarrhea either. Kind of like peanut butter. Sometimes it's really stinky too.

The GI is really pushing the scope. I might see if I can get a 2nd opinion. The GI did say that my daughter looks healthy, it's just her wieght and head measurement that's a concern.

[horsesjapan]

You say she is sensitive to milk, have you removed all dairy products from your diet? My ds would react to foods that I was eating. Your diet may be the cause for the gas she seems to experience. Problems we had with my ds were reflux, projectile vomiting, bloody stools, and eczema. He also was born average height and above average weight (10 lb 2.5 oz) but didnt' gain AT ALL from 9-12 months. Thereafter it was slow. "Average" babies triple their birthweight the first year. When you start out at 10 pounds that is a lot to gain! So I wasn't sure how much to worry. I went dairy/soy free as soon as I figured it out (about 4-5 months of age) but never could figure the rest of his allergens (IgG testing at 6 years old revealed wheat, malt, and eggs in addition to the dairy and soy). His weight used to hover around 25% but his height was 5-10%. I swear he has grown several inches since he went off his allergens. I haven't checked, but I am curious to see where is at on the charts now. He's still short compared to his classmates, but not always the shortest! I still hope he can gain some lost ground. He has never been tested for celiac, but was IgG positive to wheat and malt (from barley usually) and has had reactions to eating barley and spelt (grain that contains gluten). Can your dr do a blood test for IgG food reactions? A prick for blood is less invasive (even if it isn't easy) than going under for a scope and it might reveal something. However, mother's instinct is often right and if you feel there is no illness, then there probably isn't! With my ds, I *knew* something was wrong and it took forever to get it all sorted out. I still wonder if he (and I) have celiac. Can't test him cause he's been gluten free for too long, or at least gluten light, and I'm in the middle of testing myself. Anyway, a second opinion might be a good idea. Good luck!

[horsesjapan]

You say she is sensitive to milk, have you removed all dairy products from your diet? My ds would react to foods that I was eating. Your diet may be the cause for the gas she seems to experience. Problems we had with my ds were reflux, projectile vomiting, bloody stools, and eczema. He also was born average height and above average weight (10 lb 2.5 oz) but didnt' gain AT ALL from 9-12 months. Thereafter it was slow. "Average" babies triple their birthweight the first year. When you start out at 10 pounds that is a lot to gain! So I wasn't sure how much to worry. I went dairy/soy free as soon as I figured it out (about 4-5 months of age) but never could figure the rest of his allergens (IgG testing at 6 years old revealed wheat, malt, and eggs in addition to the dairy and soy). His weight used to hover around 25% but his height was 5-10%. I swear he has grown several inches since he went off his allergens. I haven't checked, but I am curious to see where is at on the charts now. He's still short compared to his classmates, but not always the shortest! I still hope he can gain some lost ground. He has never been tested for celiac, but was IgG positive to wheat and malt (made from barley usually) and has had reactions to eating barley and spelt (grain that contains gluten). Can your dr do a blood test for IgG food reactions? A prick for blood is less invasive (even if it isn't easy) than going under for a scope and it might reveal something. However, mother's instinct is often right and if you feel there is no illness, then there probably isn't! With my ds, I *knew* something was wrong and it took forever to get it all sorted out. I still wonder if he (and I) have celiac. Can't test him cause he's been gluten free for too long, or at least gluten light, and I'm in the middle of testing myself. Anyway, a second opinion might be a good idea. Are the other small people in your family free of celiac type symptoms? I was reading somewhere (Dangerous Grains maybe?) that a family may have a history of being short for example, but that could be due to the fact that the family has celiac in it and if they didn't eat gluten the shortness might not be "passed on", in other words it is a symptom and not a genetic trait in itself. Was any other blood work done (CBC to check for anemia, vitamin deficiencies, other allergens)? I think the blood tests in young kids and babies can be inaccurate.

Good luck!