Failure To Thrive

[Mommy2Ellie]

Ellie was "officially" labelled FTT at the doctors yesterday. We saw it comeing, but it was still really upsetting. We're devastated. We don't even know if this gluten-free thing is going to work. It really was just a shot-in-the-dark. If it doesn't work, then we're back at square one only WORSE. Ellies getting worse all the time. Its heartbreaking to see any child go downhill, worse even when its your own.....Is there any other FTT babies here? Ellies 16 months.

[TrillumHunter]

What a tough label!

I don't know any babies but I'll share this. A woman I've know for about eight years had always been sick. Each time I saw her, she was worse. Two years ago she was on oxygen and really looked like a skeleton. The last time I saw I really thought she wasn't going to make it. Finally she was diagnosed with Celiac and started the diet. I saw her last week and almost didn't recognized her. She looks 20 years younger and was the picture of health. Such an amazing transformation!

I hope that gluten is the issue and you have an amazing turnaround with your little one.

[ShayFL]

Me too. I hope gluten-free is the answer. Try cutting the dairy at least for a few months too to give her time to heal. Soy could also cause problems. Keep her with simple foods as much as possible. Meats, veggies, fruits, nut butters, rice cakes, rice, sweet potatoes and winter squash are excellent and kids usually like them.

[dandelionmom]

My daughter was FTT too. It really is just the medical term to say they're not gaining enough weight. That's all it means. It doesn't mean that she's behind or anything. My daughter quickly went back up the charts once we found out that celiac disease was the problem.

I know it is hard to hear but it really isn't as bad as it sounds.

[Rook's Mommy]

Oh I hate that label. My son was label failure to thrive up until two months ago. We are back on the chart even at 3%.

How long has your little one been gluten-free?

My son started gain with much work from us. He can have dairy so we feed him milk shakes with protein milked in it twice a day. Butter goes into everything!

I hope Ellie starts gaining for you. I know how heart breaking it is.

[angigz32]

My son was failure to thrive and still is..... he has a feeding tube in his stomach. Long story Please look at his jornal on www.caringbridge.org/co/zack..... all I can say is still we are trying to figure out what is going on. You name it and we tried it. Just a long journey for myself and son. We go to the GI doc Oct 29, 2008 and have a test done for villi sence now we can look for it, because he is trying more foods. Gene test was neg, for celiac. But doc says since he never ate before we couldn't find villi. Oh blood test came out positive for celiac sprue (a small perctage). He eat some foods and is on a pre disgested food at night through feeding tube. I've heard my son's jorney to find out what is going on is one in a few? Angie

[purple]

I am praying for Ellie to be healed. May God bless her.

[crittermom]

My heart goes out to you and Ellie. I hope you find your answers to help her feel better soon. Michael was not FTT but was very low on the weight gain charts. The doctors told me to up his calorie intake as much as possible, this is difficult with diet restrictions and picky eaters, both of which he has/is. I "hid" a lot of things in his regular food! Good luck and I will keep you both in my thoughts!

[Jules]

I too have a 29 month old daughter who at 23 months decided she was done eating and starting and fell off the charts - she was 18 lbs at 2 years old. No one knew what was wrong. She is now on a feeding tube and is still not eating enough to live on on her own. We go again on Monday for a Mikey button to be placed in her stomach. We has one test after another done and the only thing we came up with was early warning signs for Celiac disease but she tested negative for all in blood work. This was found in an endoscopy. They will biopsy again on Monday to see if we see any changes but so far gluten free has not changed her in any way and we are 6 months into this thing. So I am still not convinced she has it. She has gained weight and is now on the charts but I feel that is only because of the feeding tube.

I hope things go ok for your daughter and you find a diagnosis for her and if it is Celiac's that she gets better quickly once she is gluten free.

I am using my OT's login right now so I am not sure if I can post my email for you to use or how to send you something personal as I would love to chat with you.

Bonnie

Mom to Genna

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Please look up this thread Open Original Shared Link and read it all the way through (long thread, I know).

The mom of this baby was an engineer, so she kept charts of everything that her daughter ate AND everything the mom ate, as she was breastfeeding.

She proved to her doctor that foods the baby was sensitive to went through the breastmilk. That child was sensitive to LOTS of foods, AND had multiple issues, but she is doing well now.

Another 2 likely possibilities could be:

1)Vaccine reactions (including mercury toxicity--the flu shot contains thimerosal, as do old stores of vaccines that the doctors might still be using up)

2) Lyme disease (can be transmitted from the mom during pregnancy)

This are admittedly long shots, but in extreme cases like this, you don't want to leave any stone unturned!

Best of luck to all of you.

[nitu-752002]

Hi

My DD is 28mths old and weighs about 22lbs The dr hasnt labelled her FTT but i feel awful that she is so underweight. She had dairy and soy intolerance, thought may be wheat was a problem so i removed all gluten from her diet about 2 weeks ago. The only issue she had was constipation or watery (not formed) stools and was underweight. Anyway, it has been about 2-3 weeks since i took her off of all gluten and i really dont see much different but i plan to try this for 3mths.

I know how you feel about trying to up the weight. The dr suggested i give her duocal and neocate but i havent started yet because of not having normal stools yet and i dont know if she will tolerate this or not. I have also started to give her more fried food and continuing to add more oil to her foods. I hope we both have better luck with weight gain soon.

Nitu