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Infant son has very small appetite

My twin sons were born last October 2.5 months early. They were in the NICU approx. 50 days. One of my sons, Brandon, while deveolping normally in everything except his weight and length. He is classified as failure to thrive since he only weighs 15.5 pounds at 1 year. He has had feeding problems (not eating enough) ever since he came home from the hospital. In the NICU he would often times have residual milk in his stomach before the next feeding. I believe that he sometimes still digests his food slow because when he makes himself vomit, you can see the few bites of baby food that he had 4 hours ago (he makes himself vomit when he absolutely doesn't want anymore food).

He was on zantac for about 6 months when he first came home but is off it now.
He has had a few tests and everthing has come out ok (ph probe and swallow test). The doctors now think that the problem is behavioral.

Usually, he has 4oz breastmilk mixed with 1oz of heavy whipping cream and sometimes 2tbsp of rice cereal. This is to add calories to his diet. Out of this he will usually take only about 2 - 2.5 oz before he doesn't want anymore. He takes this very slow about 30min - 1hr. He eats/drinks extremely poorly in the morning where he only takes about 1oz at 6am and just a little better at 10am.

We started adding the heavy whipping cream about 3 weeks ago to add extra calories to his diet. He did extremely well the first 2 weeks but this last week he has dropped from drinking 28 - 30oz per day to 18-20oz per day. He has refused any baby food where he was starting to progress in this area too.

We are willing to try about anything as the regular doctors are no help at all.
 
  MCoffman on 2004-10-28
This is just a forum. Assume posts are not from medical professionals.
will he still breast feed?
 
John Stanton last decade
please explain thoroughly symptomology envoled that required zantac use...

what form - strength -dosage of zantac used? what exact name? ---famotidine ?
 
John Stanton last decade
He will still take breastmilk through the winter months to help his immune system during cold/flu/RSV season.

He was on liquid zantac(brandname) from about 3mos. to 9mos. (He is just over 12mos. now) His dosage went from .3ml to 1.7ml once per day. The doctor prescribed this because he would arch his back sometimes during feeding plus it was a struggle to get him to eat the required amount to grow. It seemed to help sometimes but then sometimes it wouldn't. It seemed to cycle from week to week. When they did a 24 hour ph probe they found out that he did not have acid reflux so they stopped the zantac.

Thanks a bunch
 
MCoffman last decade
how did his symptomology change (as observed) from before zantac--during zantac--and after zantac? please explain this clearly..
 
John Stanton last decade
The zantac seemed to help in the very beginning. He increased the amount he would take at one feeding and decreased the time to eat. But then he would start to take longer to eat while taking in the same amount. He would start arching his back and crying while taking his bottle again, after about 1 - 2 onces. We would call and tell the doctor and they would up the dosage because he was gaining weight. The last three months on zantac did not seem to make any difference, he would take about 2 - 3 onces and then it would be a struggle to get the rest down him. Sometimes he would vomit after about 2 – 3 oz. and then finish his bottle. We started to recognize that he could make himself vomit when he had enough – and he would do this about once a day. It stayed about the same after we quit using zantac (about 3 mos ago). He has always took his bottles much better at night and right before his naps. We started him on baby food just after 6 mos. He started out ok then all of a sudden after about a month he didn’t want his baby food anymore. Nothing that I know of changed at the time he stopped taking his baby food.

About 3 weeks ago we started to add about 1 oz. of heavy cream to his bottle to add calories to his diet. This went well for about 2 weeks. He actually started taking his baby food again. Then all of a sudden he stopped his baby food and went down on the number of ounces from his bottles. Nothing seemed to be noticeably different.
 
MCoffman last decade
Try child's B-complex liquid vitamins. It is good for him and increases appitite.

Avoid acting upset and concerned. Act matter of fact as if all is well. Wipe him up and walk away. Attention is nice, but let it be happy and smiling. Hide your concerns.

His body may still be a little immature, go back to baby food for awhile. Sabra
 
Sabra Gibson last decade
We already use a liquid multi-vitamin with iron. We know all the tricks of not acting concerned. He vomits, we quickly wipe him up and go back to feeding. He is starting to not vomit as much but if he takes over 4oz. at one feed you can almost bet that he will. I think that he is just too full. Don't really know if he has a small stomach or he hasn't digested his last feed yet.

Brandon refuses baby food. He is going to feeding therapy for this. He will not open his mouth at all, ok maybe 2 - 3 bites (unwillingly). Again I think he is too full.
 
MCoffman last decade
Have you have had him x-rayed to check for imperfect formation of intake and stomach condition?

FERRUM PHOS is good for no appetite as well as too much. Also a good child's remedy. 200X several times. Twice a day for 5 days or stop if shows improvement.

I am cautious about the "Iron" in the vitamins. Not good for such a young and not strong baby. Prefer vit from natural store. Sabra
 
sabra last decade
Once had to deal with a similar case . The only real clue was
'feeds little and often . Used Lycopodiun 30.
 
passkey last decade

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