I took Riley in for her 1 year appointment today. I have been a bit concerned about her weight for a few months now. She is not a picky eater and eats well, but she chokes and coughs during meals and 3 out of 4 times she throws up her entire meal. In March, she was in the 70th percentile for weight. In June, she was in the 45th, and today she fell down into the 14th. She has gained 1 pound in 3 months. I feel like I am constantly thinking about her intake of calories and offer her a ton of food. This is SO unlike Avery who has always been in the 95th percentile. (Riley weighs what Avery did at 6 1/2 months!) This has been so mentally exhausting for me. I do feel that because she is so happy all the time, sleeps through the night, and nurses well nothing too serious can be wrong. Her pediatrician is not all that concerned, but wants another weight check in a month. There is a possibility of reflux, which can be helped with medication so I need to do some reading and watch her for the next week or so. We will keep you updated. Here are some pics of the "starved" peanut. :)
This is a pic I took right after I cleaned up her throw up. Pizza does not smell nice coming back up. I already have a hard time with the smell of pizza since it was a food that grossed me out when I was pregnant. Obviously, it does not bother her that much!
Hi Jenni - Thanks for keeping such a great blog and all the updates on Riley right now. The is is our prayers daily. Love, G'ma
ReplyDeleteSorry about the 'little' errors! I trust you know I mean Riley is in our prayers all the time!!
ReplyDeletei feel you, jenn. we struggled with fattening up zoë and jodie but their issue was they just burned too many calories those crazy , little whirling dervishes of mine.
ReplyDeletewith daniel it was a different issue. he has multiple oral issues related to the prematurity, nicu experience including vocal cord paralysis, oral aversion and reflux. sadly his lack of growth resulted in him getting a feeding tube and literally learning how to eat by mouth all over again. he had a tube from age 8 months until he was 4 years old. it has been a long tough road and all the time i feel guilty...never in my life have i focused so much on food and eating.
first of all the big thing to consider is where is your daughter developmentally IN SPITE of her slow growth. if she is developing appropriately and on track with her peers then take a deep, slow breath. your girl is thriving in spite of her diminutive size. remind the docs of that everytime they stress too.
2nd: keep a food diary for about a week if possible. record every single morsel she takes in. also include any of the gagging episodes and what she was eating or doing when it happened. take the diary to the next doc appt. to show what the girl is eating/not eating and when she is gagging or throwing up.
lastly eating is so much more than nutrition. it is a social activity. again, here relax. stress later but while eating with your daughter don't stress too much about what she is/is not eating.
hopefully this is all something she will outgrow. daniel outgrew the reflux and the medley of reflux meds by the time he was 30 months.
hang in there!