Reflux

I posted the following on June 24, 2011, when Hank was six months old. 

Henry has been refusing to eat very much at daycare for the past two months. He almost always drinks a good amount of his bottle (5 or 6 ounces) at home for us, but he will only take 2 or 3 ounces at a time when he is at school. I kept thinking “it’s probably because he is teething” or “he’ll eat when he gets hungry.” But his weight is not looking great. At birth he was in the 40-something percentile. At four months he was at 23rd percentile. This week his doctor said it is less than 23rd (!). He is 6 months on Sunday and he weighs 15 pounds 9 ounces. We go back in for his routine check up on Monday. His doctor recommended switching him to soy based formula, since he was still spitting up a lot with the gentle formula he was on. We have been mixing it half and half for the past two days. Both yesterday and today, Colin and I have gone up to his classroom to feed him because he will not eat for his teachers. I’m not saying he just readily gobbles it down for us, but with rocking, shushing, etc he will eat 5 or 6 ounces.

One go my favorite pictures of Hank at ten weeks old. My dad and I met for lunch at day care that day to try to get Hank to drink a whole bottle.

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We have had trouble getting Suzy to eat enough from day one, and, while it is still hard, it definitely makes me less anxious knowing that Hank was very similar. To get Suzy to drink her bottles, we use mylicon drops, swaddle her, put rice cereal in her bottles, and try to have everything around her calm and quiet. Even with all of that, she sometimes simply refuses. At best, she drinks four ounces at once. 

Suzy at ten weeks (in size 6 month jammies! She is long!!)

The big differences between Hank and Suzy's reflux: 

Hank spit up like crazy while Suzy is a 'silent' refluxer. Hank had to change outfits at least once every day, and he always wore a bib. Suzy's spit up only comes up her throat enough to bother her. She is on Prevacid, so at least what is coming back up is not too acidic anymore. Occasionally she will throw up a whole bottle, but she rarely actually spits up. 

Hank didn't drink enough formula, so he kept getting lower in the growth chart. We have been fortifying Suzy's bottles with rice cereal to help it stay down, and rice cereal adds a lot of calories. Many days she only drinks 16 oz of formula, and it is recommended that a baby her age should drink about 24 ounces a day. The amount of cereal in her bottles makes up for those missing ounces of formula, so she is still gaining on her growth curve.

Suzy has really sweet day care ladies who try to get her to eat all day long. They have been such a blessing to us!