Poor weight gain, help

Hirschsprung's Disease
#1

So I know we have talked about this before, but…

So Max is starting to show signs of poor weight gain, his pedi is not worry, but I am> he is a small eater and is still on breastmilk and some solids.

I thought I have heard that some people give their kids butter and stuff to help w/ weight gain.

any thoughts?

#2

We had to see the dietician at our Children’s Hospital because our pediatrician and our surgeon were worried when Alasdair kept falling in his percentiles. He went from 50% down to the third percentile in a year. Turns out it’s not his HD that’s causing poor weight gain, it’s genetics. He’s just crazy skinny like his dad. But to top it off, he’s a terrible eater. They sent us away with a list of ways to “make every bite count” and keep his calories and good fat intake up. Here are some of the healthier options that we use, but our son is 18 months old:

  • whole milk mixed with half and half for drinking
  • use half and half to make his cereal, oatmeal, etc.
  • cook things in butter
  • add cheese to things (works for us but maybe not for all HD kids)
  • get things like Nutripals or cliff bars for kids
  • buy cream cheese and put it on whole wheat mini bagels
  • Pediasure drinks w/fiber to make up extra calories, mixed with half and half

I’d talk to your doc and see what would be appropriate for a little one that’s still breastfeeding. Maybe you could substitute one feeding a day with a bottle of formula or something since it’s high in calories and fat…

I’m totally on board with the Pediasure drinks though. Those are a livesaver for us. We give him half of one (4 ounces) and mix it with 4 ounces of half and half. It’s an extra 120 calories and he loves it. It’s the only thing he’ll reliably eat every day.

#3

Thanks for the info, at the appt the Dr was not worried, just wanted to make sure Max was getting enough milk, he did not even discuss solids. Of course Max is not getting all th emilk the pedi wanted, if I try and force him to drink more than he wants, he throws up on me. lol, it took a few times for me to learn my lesson. I have to pump full time since Max won’t nurse, but the upside of that is I can know for sure how much he is getting.

He’ll be a yr in April and at that time if Max is still small I am gonna ask about the pedisure ( I am sure that is ok ) and the half anf half. Of course I don’t yet if Max can handle cows milk, I hope he can.

I let Max lick the butter off my toast the other day and he liked that, plus I made him some avocados and they are high in fat and he liked them, so I guess I’ll be making more of them!

My husband and I are both short ( 5’3 and him 5’7) and my husband was a super skinny kid and young adult, he warned me Max could be a little PeaNutty

1 Like
#4

Good for you for keeping up with pumping. Chase wouldn’t nurse either so I felt like I was always attached to that machine :slight_smile:

Avacados are a great choice- they have all the good fatty acids…we eat TONS of them. If you have dairy in your diet and Max is doing fine I imagine he will be tolerant of dairy too.

I thought you could introduce dairy at 6 months with yogurt etc – maybe not though? We gave Chase yogurt around that time but we give him cottage cheese and fruit for breakfast because he likes the texture.

Chase was born on 3/11/08 so they are pretty close in age.

Jo