Starving

You know nothing hits you harder than finding out that you have been starving your child for the SECOND time in their life!!!

When Addy was almost three we switched doctors and found out that she had been on a supplemental formula for almost two years and was basically starving. So we went through a bunch of different formulas with a nutrition to find our liquid gold Elecare. It is seriously the only thing that Addy tolerates without throwing up. Anyway, Addy has been on the exact same amount of formula since she was three. Mind you, she is SIX. Whenever we have seen the DS Clinic, our pediatrician, GI etc. no one was too concerned about her feeding since "she's growing". Addy has only gained 8 pounds since she was 3. Granted, she gets sick a lot and always loses weight when she's sick but still.

(I had to really doctor this photo, Addy has rubbed her little face raw!)

Since these past hospital stays in January and the prospect of malabsorption was brought up our ped has referred us to many places since the GIs in St. Louis don't seem to think it's an issue even though she has ALL of the symptoms.

Our first appointment was Friday afternoon with the nutritionist. Her former nutritionist works at the hospital  now and actually came and saw her while she was inpatient. Anyway, we spent quite a bit of time at this appointment. She spent a lot of time figuring out exactly how much Addy should be taking in. Well, she has been taking in 840 calories per day. Yes you read that right, 840!!! For a six year old she should be taking in 1200-1500!!!! So our first plan of attack is to increase her daily feeds until she is at least taking in the minimum amount of calories. We are adding 40mL of formula to each feeding for a week then increasing another 40mL until we get to 360mL per feeding. I can't believe that this wasn't picked up on before :( We never had a follow up with the past dietician so that's probably why. We are going to be seeing this dietician monthly until Addy is at least at the 5% on the growth chart.

Addy is going to have a modified barium swallow study (with our amazing feeding therapist) on Tuesday and then she will see an Immunologist on the 22nd. She will be having full allergy testing performed as well as blood work to look into malabsorption and immunodeficiencies. I'm hoping that we will find out what keeps her from getting so sick and keep her healthy and have her become a strong, healthy, little growing girl!!