So Sue was born 15 1/2 months after Caitlyn. By this time Caitlyn was doing much better in her weight gain and development.
So I guess it must have been time for round 2 of why gain weight…
Sue, from the very beginning, decided not to gain. She lost her entire 10% plus a bit, and then thought gaining an ounce about every 3+ days was a good idea. Mind you, the experts like to see babies gain on average an ounce a day.
Praise the Lord we had our wonderful doctor. She understood my little girl. And decided we could just watch her. Sue thought it would be fun to spit up a lot. She would eat and spit it up. She was a happy spitter…she did not seem to be in any pain…the only pain was having to change her clothes, and mine,. all the time.
The doctor and I just watched it. And watched it as Sue very consistently gained slowly in the under the 3rd percentile. Then she started gaining even less. At 10 months the doctor decided it was time to treat the reflux. I hated it, but my doctor had continued to earn my trust by taking things very slowly.
She had not jumped to formula supplements. She knew breastmilk was the best thing for Sue. While babies on average take in less fluid ounces than a formula fed baby, the breastmilk can be more completely used by the baby–giving more caloric bang for her eating buck.
She had also not forced early solids. To the contrary, we had actually backed off Sue’s amount of solids to make sure she was taking in as much breastmilk as possible…you know that caloric bang for her eating buck.
We did some lacto-engineering. I pumped after she would nurse to increase the hindmilk, the fattier milk with more calories. We even did a little bit of playing with her pumped bottles. I would take 2 after they cooled, skim the heavier milk off from both and combine it in one bottle. Did it help? Hard to tell, but some combination did, Sue went back to her 3rd percentile weight gain.
Shortly after she turned a year, she started gaining a bit more for a few months.
Right after she turned two, we finally got decently on the chart. That lasted a few months, then she got a stomach virus and lost a pound in 3 days. But we got that back on.
The child eats, a lot. Half the time she out eats her older sister. So do we know why she gains slowly, no. Maybe she is just lucky and has a fast metabolism. Maybe she will catch up later. We don’t know, but we do know she is healthy and developmentally does fantastic.
I am so thankful for a doctor who watched the situation, intervened when absolutely necessary, and let my daughter be herself, in personality and growth.
Again, none of this is meant to be medical advice at all. Nope. It is just our experience with little kids and a great doctor. For her patience and trust we are very thankful.